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IRELAND AND ENGLAND 






IRELAND AND ENGLAND 



IN THE PAST AND AT PRESENT 



BY 
EDWARD RAYMOND TURNER 

Professor of European History in the 
University of Michigan 



K»9^?*^^ftV 







NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO. 

1919 






Copyright, 1919, by 
The Centuhy Co. 



Published, October, 1919 



ot'r ib !b:d 



fa- 9- 



1CLA529853 



J/? 



56 






TO 
ELEANOR BOWIE TURNER 

AND 

E. B. T. 

IN MST. MEM. 



PREFACE 

I have written this book with the desire of helping 
to bring about better understanding of a question 
which is very troublesome and perplexing, not only 
to the Irish and the English, but, less directly, to the 
people of the United States, a matter which still 
creates one of the most formidable obstacles to com- 
pletely good relations between the English-speaking 
peoples. 

In America Irish matters are usually discussed by 
extremists; and with all deference to the teaching of 
writers inspired with the best and most generous pas- 
sion for their cause, it must be said that no more cor- 
rect judgment can be made about Ireland from the 
excessive denunciations of some Sinn Feiners than 
would come from the notions of British partisans and 
tories. 

I have tried to write an account which considers 
all the principal aspects of the subject, and in pre- 
senting both sides or all sides I have often used the 
very words of the advocates themselves, though I 
cannot always vouch for the correctness of their 
opinions. 

Others may, if they desire, tell just how the Irish 
question should be settled, but then I do not think 
they can realize how complicated and difficult that 



viii PREFACE 

question is. Actually the settlement has been going 
forward for some time ; more time is required to make 
it complete; nor can that completion be attained by 
any simple expedient or at once. I have succeeded 
in the purpose of my writing if I bring into clearer 
view what the difficulties are. 

There is little doubt, I think, that most of the peo- 
ple of Great Britain wish Ireland well and are re- 
solved to do complete justice, that they are quite 
willing for Ireland to have Home Rule. Until re- 
cently most Irishmen would have been satisfied with 
Home Rule, and I think after a while most of them 
will again be reconciled to have it. As for com- 
plete separation, England will not and cannot — as 
things are in this world — allow it, nor, in my opinion, 
does Ireland really need it. The logic of geography 
and of history and of things existent tends now, as 
for centuries past, to the unification of the British 
Isles, with such self-determination in the parts as 
seems desirable, and not towards separateness and dis- 
integration. 

It may be that I have done my task ill ; but so far 
as I have failed it is not because of bitterness or 
malice. I have wished to write without prejudice and 
do justice to all. I am myself partly of Irish de- 
scent — south Ireland — and I have also been in Eng- 
land sufficiently to know the great and admirable 
qualities of the English people, which are now better 
known in this country as a result of the war. 

So freely have I used the work of others who 



PREFACE 



IX 



studied the subject before me that I must make the 
most generous acknowledgment in this place. Parts 
of the writing, however, are based upon my own 
studies and observations abroad. 

Edward Raymond Turner. 
Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
June 1, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
POWER AND SUBJECTION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Ancient Ireland 3 

II Irish Christianity 18 

III The Anglo-Normans in Ireland . . . .32 

IV Conquest and Taking of the Land ... 56 

V The Nadir of Subjection 81 

VI Grattan's Parliament 95 

VII Ireland Under the Union 106 

VIII The Famine and the Fenians 134 

PART II 

THE NEW AGE: ATONEMENT AND REDRESS 

I The Beginning of a New Spirit . . . .159 

II Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland 181 

III Land Legislation 188 

IV The Agricultural Renaissance .... 216 

V The Government of Ireland 226 

VI The Struggle for Home Rule .... 242 

VII The Arguments About Home Rule . . . 266 
VIII Ulster 293 



CONTENTS 

PART III 

IRISH NATIONALITY AND THE WAR 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Irish Language and Literature and the 

Irish Revival 315 

II Sinn Fein 349 

III The Easter Rebellion 369 

IV The Home Rule Question During the War . 396 
V The Question of Conscription .... 418 
VI America, Great Britain, and the Irish Ques- 
tion 438 

VII Conclusion 462 

Index 481 



PART I 
POWER AND SUBJECTION 



IRELAND AND ENGLAND 



CHAPTER I 

ANCIENT IRELAND 

On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays, 

When the clear cold eve 's declining, 
He sees the round towers of other days 

In the wave beneath him shining. 
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, 

Catch a glimpse of the days that are over ; 
Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time 

For the long-faded glories they cover. 

Moore : "Let Erin Remember the Days of Old," 
Irish Melodies. 

Teach your Children to be loyal to Mother Eire. 

Sinn Fern Leaflet, 1911. 

THE old and more proper name of the home of 
the Irish people was Erin, perhaps from a root 
word signifying fat or fruitful, because of the fer- 
tility of the pastures of the land. As the Romans 
called their Hellenic neighbors Greed, Greeks, and 
affixed to them that name in the usage of posterity, so 
the designation of this island was for the outside 
world at least changed during the period of the Scan- 
dinavian invasions, when the Danes corrupted Erin, 

3 



4 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the name of the natives, to Ireland, a name which 
they made. Far off in a dim and scarce visible past 
there lived in Erin, as in other places, the old stone 
men, and after them the new stone men who reared, 
as they did in France and Britain, their dolmens or 
burial houses, which stand even now before the travel- 
ler in gaunt and silent witness of days long forgotten. 
Later came from the continent of Europe, at a time 
not known, but which legend assigns to the year 1700 
B. C, the Goidels or Gaels. Erin was peopled by 
Goidelic members of the Celtic race, as the neighbor- 
ing island was settled by the other great branch, the 
Brythons. 

Of early Celtic Ireland we have slight information, 
aside from legendary accounts. It lay off on the rim 
of the world, and was scantily discerned by classical 
writers, though Ptolemy described it better than Al- 
bion or Britain. Erin was known to the Phenicians; 
and Greek writers called it the Sacred Island, Iernis, 
leme. In the time of Tacitus its harbors were more 
renowned than those of Britain. It may be that con- 
siderable commerce was carried on in early times, and 
that some civilization had developed there by the be- 
ginning of the Christian era. The old stories of the 
era before the introduction of Christianity have to 
do with kings who fought great battles, of Cuchul- 
lain of Ulster, of Medb, queen of Connaught, of the 
men of Leinster who must pay great tribute, of Ul- 
stermen who made voyages to Alban or Scotland,. of 
Ollamh Fodla who established the meeting of nobles 



ANCIENT IRELAND 5 

and learned men at Tara, and of Tuathal, who con- 
solidated the monarchy, and formed the new province 
of Meath to be the demesne of the over-kings at Tara. 
Legend merges into history about the time of the 
Romans. As afterwards the Germanic barbarians 
who conquered the western provinces of the Roman 
Empire never advanced into Erin, so the Romans 
themselves never came there from Britain, though 
Tacitus declares that Agricola, his father-in-law, was 
wont to say that the conquest might be made with 
one legion, and that it would be well for the Roman 
power to be established on all sides and "liberty put 
away out of sight." 1 When Roman power was de- 
clining in Britain, we hear much of the Scots who 
came from Erin to Britain again and again for war- 
fare and plunder, and of Laeghaire in the fifth cen- 
tury, in whose time the work of Saint Patrick began, 
There has come down a large amount of old Gaelic 
literature, annals, historical and genealogical writ- 
ings, religious and ecclesiastical pieces, romances and 
tales, and treatises of law, medicine, and science, from 
which directly or indirectly much can be learned 
about the early history and life of the people. The 
oldest of them are in a difficult language, much of 
which had been partly forgotten, until the middle of 
the nineteenth century, when a Bavarian, Kaspar 
Zeuss, published his Grammatica Celtica. Using the 
Irish glosses, or explanations which Gaelic teachers 
had written in the margins or between the lines of 

i "Agricola," c. 24-. 



6 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Latin texts for the guidance of their students, he re- 
covered the lost grammatical forms and also the mean- 
ings of numerous words, and was thus the founder of 
Celtic philology. The writings are in poetry or in 
prose, the early poetical compositions often obscure, 
with some of the most complicated and difficult versi- 
fication ever invented. It has been held that a prim- 
itive form of writing was used in Erin in very early 
times, but these letters, the so-called oghams, which 
are largely groups of parallel lines, are by most critics 
traced either to the Roman alphabet or to the Scandi- 
navian runes, so that reading and writing are believed 
to have been introduced into the island not before the 
time when Christianity was brought there. 

The character of early Irish culture has been the 
subject of much dispute. In later days, when Ire- 
land was unhappy and debased, when there was little 
in contemporary life to be proud of, and at other 
times when hope was put in the future, ardent spirits 
were wont to look back through a glow of patriotic 
romance beyond the traditions of the past, and they 
saw a golden age in a happy island of the west. Re- 
cently, in the midst of the Irish revival there have 
been writers, such, for example, as Mrs. Green, who 
have not hesitated to ascribe to early Irish society 
an excellence and a fine character which can scarcely 
have existed anywhere in primitive times. Much of 
what these writers declare may have been so, though 
probability is often against it, and their belief is many 
times founded rather upon generous feeling and pa- 



ANCIENT IRELAND 7 

triotic desire than painstaking interpretation of the 
texts. On the other hand, it must be remembered 
that until recently few investigators outside of Ire- 
land have taken interest in Irish antiquities, and Eng- 
lish writers either had scant respect for Ireland or 
based their accounts upon testimony of those who 
wrote of Irishmen as degraded savages or regarded 
them as inferior and wretched. It has been the ardu- 
ous task of a new school of historians to study the 
culture of Ireland in early times and estimate it more 
truly, as well as to discover how far this culture was 
handed down in the following ages. In controversies 
of recent years there has been one party declaring 
that the excellence of early Irish things and the in- 
heritance from those times give to Irishmen a char- 
acter which renders them, perhaps, the wisest, the 
liveliest, and the best in the British Empire, and that 
before the Irish people lies a mission to develop their 
type of civilization and give it to the modern world. 

The Gael is not like other men; the spade and the loom 
and the sword are not for him. But a destiny more glori- 
ous than that of Rome, more glorious than that of Britain, 
awaits him: to become the saviour of idealism in modern 
intellectual and social life, the regenerator and rejuvenator 
of the literature of the world, the instructor of the nations, 
the preacher of the gospel of nature-worship, hero-worship, 
God-worship — such is the destiny of the Gael. 2 

Somewhere I have seen the statement -of a writer, 

2 Padraic Pearse .before a young men's literary society in 1897: L. G. 
Redmond-Howard, Six Days of the Irish Republic (Boston, 1916), p. 



8 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

that it is the speeches of the Irish members which 
give savor to the parliamentary debates of the United 
Kingdom; and in a way this is true. On the other 
hand, it has been widely said that as the past has been 
so will the future be; the Irishman who was back- 
ward once and unable to get for himself good govern- 
ment, is after all the Irishman of the present, whom 
it would be unwise to trust with Home Rule. Actu- 
ally, as in all things, the truth seems to lie somewhere 
in between these partisan statements. The Gaels of 
earlier Ireland lived in the midst of conditions which 
had some beauty and much good inherent in them, 
and were well suited to the times when they devel- 
oped, but which were rude and primitive compared 
with what came later on, and were abandoned gener- 
ally as peoples rose upward in the scale of culture. 

The old Gaels were organized in tribal communi- 
ties, where family relationship was the strongest of 
all ties. Just as writers of the nineteenth century of 
the Teutonist school often took from Tacitus an ac- 
count of early Germanic communities consisting of 
democratic assemblies of freemen, with their families 
and dependents, so now there are Irish writers who 
describe the Gaelic tribal system as something excel- 
lent and democratic, giving freest play to develop- 
ment of national character. 

The law with them was the law of the people. They never 
lost their trust in it. Hence they never exalted a central 
authority, for their law needed no such sanction. While 
the code was one for the whole race, the administration on 



ANCIENT IRELAND 9 

the other hand was divided into the widest possible range 
of self-governing communities, which were bound together 
in a willing federation. The forces of union were not ma- 
terial but spiritual. . . . Such an instinct of national life 
was neither rude nor contemptible. 3 

But such an interpretation must be based on fancy 
and desire and modern feeling rather than on careful 
study of the past; and it is not what the Brehon Laws 
seem to show. One who did make such a study says : 
"The social system was aristocratic: in no case have 
we evidence that there was a community governed by 
an assembly of representatives without a permanent 
head." 4 Each group was governed by a chief, who 
was always a member of the ruling family ; though it 
should be said that the successor was often elected 
during the lifetime of the ruler, being called then the 
tanist, or second in authority. 

Erin was divided among groups of people, large or 
small. The smaller were ruled by flaiths or chiefs, 
the larger by ris or kings, while all of them were in 
some sort under the ard-ri or great king, who had a 
sovereignty over the lesser kings, they being obliged 
to attend him in war and pay tribute. That is to 
say, there was the ard-ri at Tara in Meath ; under him 
there were the kings of Ulster, Leinster, Minister, 
Connaught, and Meath ; under them were lesser kings, 
beneath whom there were chieftains — in each case the 
lesser being bound to the greater by war-service and 

3 Mrs. J. R. Green, Irish Nationality (London, 1911), pp. 14, 15, 
* P. W. Joyce, A Short History of Ireland (London, 1904), p. 59. 






10 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 



tribute. Allegiance from less to greater was main- 
tained by taking hostages : "He is not a king," says 
the Brehon Law, "who has not hostages in fetters." 5 
Whatever may be thought about the working of such 
a system, it is evident from the old Gaelic tales and 
romances that along with what was noble and splen- 
did there was much tribal warfare and absence of set- 
tled conditions. The same story from the tribal 
period of English history, in Anglo-Saxon times, is 
better known to a great many readers. 

The people were divided into various ranks and 
classes: kings and nobles, freemen, bondsmen with 
few rights, and slaves with none. It will be remem- 
bered that in Anglo-Saxon times there was a flourish- 
ing slave trade between England and Erin, some- 
thing that was not brought to an end until after the 
Norman Conquest. Generally speaking, the lower 
classes were bound to those above them by payments 
and service. The service was work of various kinds; 
the payments were in cattle or provisions or articles 
made by hand. 

Within the tribal community the members were 
bound together by common customs, and to greater or 
less extent by feeling of kinship. Each member bore 
part of the obligations of the tribe, such as contribu- 
ting to the support 'of the childless old, and no mem- 
ber was free to make contracts affecting the tribe. 
On the other hand, the whole community was respon- 
sible for each one of its members, and might be liable 

5 Ibid., p. 64. 



ANCIENT IRELAND 11 

for his debts or fines. As far back as one may go, 
there was among these people some private owner- 
ship of land, but for the most part land belonged, at 
least in theory, not to individuals but to the tribe. 
Originally, it would seem, there had been collective 
ownership, and land had been the common property 
of the members of the community. Within a tribe 
some of the land was held by the chieftain, and some 
as private property, but the bulk of it was tribe land, 
the arable being divided up among the tribesmen from 
time to time, and the grazing land and waste held in 
common. Thus, when a member who held part of 
the tribe land died, his land did not go to his chil- 
dren, but was divided up among the male adult mem- 
bers of the community. This was the custom of 
gavelkind, once widespread over Europe, and long 
existent in English Kent. Hence a man could not 
alienate his land outside the tribe, and there were 
tribal obligations concerning the management and 
disposal of it. Within these old restrictions a man 
might do with his land as he pleased. This communal 
or tribal land system is one of the important factors 
in the history of Ireland. In early times such a 
system had existed in most primitive communities of 
the so-called Aryan peoples; it was in England 
among the Anglo-Saxons and traces of it long con- 
tinued. But it persisted in Ireland far longer than 
in England; and one of the tragedies of Irish history 
is the forcible overthrow of the Irish system by the 
alien system of the English invaders, and the wrongs 



12 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

and hardships to the natives who scarce understood 
what took place. 

The old Irish system is known very largely from 
the ancient Law of the Brehons, or professional law- 
yers. Very influential, as time went on they tended 
to form an hereditary legal class, giving judgment in 
accordance with the custom of the land. 

Call ye now the Brehons in, 
And let the plea begin. 6 

They had collections of laws by which they regulated 
their decisions and taught their scholars. Many of 
these collections have been preserved ; their content is 
known now as the Brehon Law. 

Wherever the tribal system flourishes the idea of 
the state is little developed. Constant warfare and 
tribal dispute make it difficult to establish the idea of 
a central authority. Accordingly there are in early 
times no offences against the state, or crimes, as they 
would now be called, but only against individuals or 
groups. Therefore wrongs were not punished or 
avenged by the state: the injured person or his kins- 
men sought redress. In Erin, as elsewhere at first, 
the law of retaliation prevailed, "an eye for an eye 
and a tooth for a tooth." But in all primitive soci- 
eties and among all early "Aryan" peoples, as ideas 
of peace slowly develop, retaliation gradually gives 
way to compensation. The injured party might take 

e Here and in several other places I quote Sir Samuel Ferguson's 
The Welshmen of Tirawley. 



ANCIENT IRELAND 13 

into his own hands the law, but generally he referred 
his case to a brehon. The penalty awarded went to 
the person injured or his kinsmen. For homicide or 
bodily hurt the fine was known as an eric: 

Then the Brehons to MacWilliam Burke decreed 
An eric upon Clan Barrett for the deed; 
And the Lynott's share of the fine, 
As foster-father, was nine 
Ploughlands and nine score kine. 

The amount of the penalty varied with the character 
of the injury and the rank of the person injured, and 
there were comprehensive tables or codes of what 
should be paid in a given case. In later days Eng- 
lish observers in Ireland, like the poet Spenser, fa- 
miliar as* they were with the English common law, 
denounced this system of laws of compensation. 

Eudoxws: What is that which you call the Brehon 
law? . . . 

Irenaeus: It is a rule of right unwritten, but delivered 
by tradition from one to another, in which oftentimes there 
appeareth great shew of equity, in determining the right 
betweene party and party, but in many things repugning 
quite both to God's law, and man's : As for example in the 
case of murder, the Brehon, that is their judge, will com- 
pound betweene the murderer, and the friends of the party 
murdered, which prosecute the action, that the malefactor 
shall give unto them, or to the child, or wife of him that is 
slain a recompence, which they call an Eriach: By which 
vilde law of theirs, many murders amongst them are made 
up, and smothered . . . 



14 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Eudoxus: This is a most wicked law indeed . . . 7 

The same system was well known, however, not 
only among peoples of antiquity but among the Ger- 
manic tribes, and flourishing in England in the An- 
glo-Saxon period, it lingered on in some faint traces 
for a long while after. 

The public life of the Gaelic people was carried on 
in assemblies large and small. There was the Fes 
or convention held from time to time at Tara, at- 
tended by the provincial kings and chieftains, the 
leading people of Erin; and there were the aenachs 
or fairs held in the districts every year or so, 
and attended by all classes there. At these fairs, 
which had their origin, probably, in the celebration 
of funeral games, and were often held at the ancient 
cemeteries, the Druids made their sacrifices, and in 
later times Christian rites were celebrated, meetings 
were held at which disputes were heard, laws were 
promulgated or publicly read again, and such simple 
matters of government and administration as then 
were carried on were transacted by the proper per- 
sons. Here also games were celebrated, parents met 
and arranged the marriages of their sons and daugh- 
ters, which were here performed, and markets were 
held for the wares of the country. These fairs flour- 
ished in olden times, but some of them continued into 
the Middle Ages. 

The religion of the Gaels before Christianity was 

7 Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland, etc. (159(i), in 
A Collection of Tracts and Treatises . . . of Ireland (Dublin, 1890), 
i. 4i21. 



ANCIENT IRELAND 15 

spread over the island was a religion in which forces 
or objects of nature were worshipped. "The religion 
of the Celestial Fire, or light, predominated; the sun 
and the moon were the principal objects of wor- 
ship." 8 In Christian times this usage continued with 
forms changed, and it is thought that the sacred fire 
of St. Bridget at Kildare, which burned until Henry 
III caused it to be extinguished, and which, rekindled, 
burned until the time of Henry VIII, was an adapta- 
tion of this very thing. Along with this and beneath 
it, as elsewhere, were survivals of an earlier stage, the 
period of animism or polydemonism. Among the old 
Gaels there was widespread belief in the existence 
of spirits or demons, animating everything. They 
could be controlled or dealt with by formulas, incanta- 
tions, or magic, which were known only to the wiz- 
ards. By obtaining information from the demons 
whom they controlled, the wizards became fortune- 
tellers, as they became astrologers through their study 
of the elements and the heavens. These wizards were 
the famous Druids ; and the old Irish religion is some- 
times called Druidism, like that of Britain and Gaul. 
In Erin Druids were thought to possess tremendous 
powers, working spells, chanting incantations, driv- 
ing men mad, if they would, and foretelling events yet 
to come. It should be said that in early times the 
Brehons were members of the Druid class, though 
afterward they became quite distinct. 

s Arthur Ua Clerigh, History of Ireland to the Coming of Henry II 
(London), i. 185. 



16 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

It would seem also that before the Christian period 
there had begun to develop what may be discerned 
better in classical countries and Germanic and Scan- 
dinavian lands, anthropomorphic conception of the 
forces or objects of nature; that is, the worship of sun, 
moon, mountains, winds, streams, as gods, strange 
beings, monsters, very powerful, it may be, and 
often strange and uncanny, but so far as they were 
clearly conceived, after all essentially like men and 
women or the animals familiar to them. Old re- 
ligions had much of this: Zeus and Hera, beautiful, 
splendid, and strong, who ruled gods and men from 
their palace high on Olympus; Pluto, gloomy in 
Hades, and Cerberus, his three-headed dog; Thor the 
god-warrior who hurled his hammer with giant 
strength against the giants of frost; the Valkyrs who 
carried valiant men from stricken fields to Valhalla; 
Grendel the monster whom Beowulf slew, and Gren- 
del's more terrible mother ; the witches, the fairies, the 
elves, the giants, the goblins. Everyone knows how 
much of all this has come down faintly in some way 
even to the present. Such deities and eery things are 
mentioned in the old Irish tales. There were the war 
goddesses who shrieked over the heads of the heroes 
in battle, putting fury into their hearts. There was 
Mannanan Mac Lir, who gave name to the Isle of 
Man; and Brigit the goddess of wisdom. Later on 
in Christian Ireland there persisted what had come 
from the early time, a general belief in lesser beings, 
who lived in rocks and in hills, where they had palaces 



ANCIENT IRELAND 17 

rare and splendid: fairies, demons, goblins, and 
ghosts. A female fairy was a banshee, and there 
are now living people who believe they have heard the 
banshee's cry. There was some belief in a place of 
perpetual youth and everlasting peace. Some 
thought it deep in the earth; some put it far out in 
the ocean, calling it O 'Brazil. In the era of the great 
discoveries, when geography was ill-understood, 
Brazil was the name given to part of the new world 
found in the west. 



CHAPTER II 

IRISH CHRISTIANITY 

Irish Ireland, if the ideal be realised, will, please God, in 
the twentieth century be the Irish Ireland of the sixth, 
seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries — the Ireland that will 
not only guard with jealous care the treasure of the Faith- 
gift within her own four seas, but the Ireland that will send 
her best-beloved sons abroad, to carry the standard of the 
Cross to pagan shores, and set up churches of the ancient 
Faith amid the ruins of modern paganism. 

Rev. Gerald O'Nolan, of Maynooth: Belfast 
Irish News, December 2, 1912. 

ANEW and splendid period in Irish history- 
comes after the introduction of Christianity. 
It had been brought into Erin before the coming of 
St. Patrick, but with his labors the movement is al- 
ways associated now. He was born in Scotland or 
Gaul, it is not certain which. A boy of sixteen, he 
was taken captive and sold as a slave in Erin. For 
six years under a hard master he kept sheep in a bleak 
and lonely place. After a while, when he had learned 
well the language of the people, he escaped; and pres- 
ently, brooding much upon what he had seen, resolved 
to devote his life to their conversion. After much 
preparation he went forth, possibly with the benedic- 
tion of the Pope, and in 432 landed on the east coast 

18 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 19 

near Wicklow. He was then about forty-five, of 
commanding presence, in the full vigor of his man- 
hood. After some difficulties at the start, he suc- 
ceeded in his task beyond expectation. In all the his- 
tory of the faith, it is said, there is no instance of a 
missionary so successful as St. Patrick. No people 
received Christianity in so short a space of time as the 
Irish. Understanding, perhaps, the tribal and fam- 
ily feeling of the Gaels and their devotion to their 
chiefs, St. Patrick addressed himself first to the kings 
and chiefs, knowing that if the great men were con- 
verted their people would easily follow. In 433 he 
proceeded to Tara, and on Easter effected the con- 
version of the ard-ri Laeghaire. In the course of his 
long mission the greater part of the Irish became 
Christians, at least nominally, and the land was filled 
with churches. He died about 465, some say, in the 
seventy-eighth year of his age. 

During the lifetime of St. Patrick there arose in 
Erin an extraordinary religious fervor, which con- 
tinued for a great while thereafter, profoundly affect- 
ing that country and many others nearby. Holy men 
and great religious leaders were succeeded by others 
as holy, and the best spirits took part in the move- 
ment. Churches and monasteries were founded, 
often by the gift of chieftains or kings, and protected 
and fostered by them. Great numbers of persons 
entered the religious life. Some of them taught the 
people and performed the religious ministrations of 
the neighborhood; some adopted a life of contempla- 



20 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

tion and prayer, with labor to support themselves, in 
places lonely and remote. The eastern ideal of soli- 
tary monastic life, remote from associations with the 
world, came also to England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
and, as readers of Kingsley may remember, there 
were numerous establishments of anchorites on the 
small, rocky isles along the coast. 

At first the organization of the Irish church was 
tribal, like the other organizations of their life. 
Bishops and priests had no territorial jurisdiction over 
dioceses and parishes as they had later on, but were 
attached to tribes, clans, or religious and monastic 
communities. The obligations of the laity to the 
clergy were somewhat like those of people to chiefs: 
they owed payment of tithes, firstlings, and first fruits. 
The head of a monastery was abbot and also chief of 
the community around him. As with other offices 
in Irish tribal organization, ecclesiastical dignities 
tended to stay in the same families for generations. 

The religion brought by St. Patrick and his prede- 
cessors was the Christianity of the western Roman 
world, but, as is well known, there soon developed a 
difference important in the history of Ireland and of 
England. The incorrect western computation of the 
date of Easter was brought in, shortly before it was 
abandoned by Rome, and soon the lands with Irish 
Christianity celebrated Easter at a different time from 
that used in the Roman church. In England the con- 
troversy between Roman and Irish Christianity, in- 
volving as it did the authority of the Pope, was vir- 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 21 

tually decided at the Synod of Whitby in 664. In 
Ireland the change began earlier, but since some of 
the religious leaders there clung to that which their 
predecessors had established, the alteration was more 
gradual, some parts of the country not yielding until 
the early part of the eighth century, after which Ro- 
man usages were generally adopted. 

The old Gaelic Christianity of Erin is glorious be- 
cause of the splendid development of schools and edu- 
cation which accompanied it, and even more because 
of the memorable missionary effort which went forth 
after Ireland had been brought to the faith. From 
the middle of the sixth century schools appeared in 
large numbers, many of them monastic, and they at- 
tracted great numbers of students. At one time, it 
is said, there were 3,000 of them with St. Finnen at 
Clonard; though one mistrusts all numbers in med- 
ieval accounts. Some believe that these schools were 
better than anything of the kind to be found in the 
West at this time, -and that they were in some fashion 
prototypes of the universities later. Their renown 
is attested by the crowds of foreigners who came to 
them, many from England, some from France, and 
even from Italy and Egypt. The regard in which 
they were held is evident from the correspondence of 
Alcuin and also the History of Bede. Theology was 
studied, and Latin and Greek and even Hebrew were 
cultivated, while there was instruction in Gaelic gram- 
mar and literature, history, arithmetic, astronomy, 
geometry, and music. Besides the monastic schools 



22 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

there were secular schools under laymen, where the 
professions of medicine and law were taught, this 
teaching often being hereditary in the same families 
for generations. Erin came to be renowned for her 
learning and civilization. "The classic tradition, to 
all appearance dead in Europe, burst out into full 
bloom in the Isle of the Saints, and the Renaissance 
began in Ireland seven hundred years before it was 
known in Italy. During three centuries Ireland was 
the asylum of the Higher Learning, which took sanc- 
tuary from the uncultured states of Europe. At one 
time Armagh, the religious capital of Christian Ire- 
land, was the metropolis of civilization." 1 It has 
been said that in the seventh and eighth centuries prob- 
ably no one in western Europe spoke Greek who was 
not Irish or taught by an Irishman. 

The Erin which welcomed strangers to her schools 
and religious establishments also sent forth her sons 
and disciples to carry religion and civilization to lands 
round about. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth cen- 
turies Irishmen were the greatest and most successful 
missionaries in Europe. Homesick and longing for 
their own land often, they went forth for the glory of 
God. "My country," said one of them, "is where I can 
gather the largest harvest for Christ." 2 St. Columba 
went to Iona, where a great monastery became the 
source of missionaiy effort in lands nearby. There 
was the north country of the other island, known of 

i Clerigh, quoting Darrnesteter, p. 348. 
% Clerigh, p. 345, 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 23 

old as Alban, partly colonized by Scots or Gaels from 
Erin. From them later on it came to be known as 
Scotland: the name Scotia belonged originally to Ire- 
land, but about the eleventh century the name went 
to the country now known as Scotland, and the parent 
country lost it. Thither from Iona went Columba 
and his monks and converted the Scots and the Picts 
of the Highlands. His disciples, notably Aidan, con- 
verted the greater part of the people of England and 
Wales, England thus owing a large part of her Chris- 
tianity to Irish monks who labored there before the 
arrival in the south of St. Augustine from Rome. It 
was under the tuition of Irish monks at Glastonbury 
that the career of the great Dunstan was begun. 
Many missionaries went to the continent, the most 
eminent being Columbanus, who with twelve com- 
panions left Ireland and founded the monastery of 
Luxeuil in Burgundy, whence other foundations 
branched off, and from which the faith was spread into 
Switzerland, Italy, France, and afterwards Germany. 
Before the fervor of the missionaries ended, some of 
them had gone to Jerusalem, some to Carthage, and 
some as far north as Iceland. Long afterwards, in 
many a town of Italy, Germany, and France Irish- 
men were held as patron saints. The revival of learn- 
ing in Europe was owing in no small degree to their 
efforts. 

No church of any land has so noble a record in the aston- 
ishing work of its teachers, as they wandered over the ruined 
provinces of the empire among the pagan tribes of the in- 



24 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

vaders. In the Highlands they taught the Picts to compose 
hymns in their own tongue ; in a monastery founded by them 
in Yorkshire was trained the first English poet in the new 
England; at St. Gall they drew up a Latin-German dic- 
tionary for the Germans of the upper Rhine and Switzer- 
land, and even devised new German words to express the 
new ideas of Christian civilisation ; near Florence one of 
their saints taught the natives how to turn the course of a 
river. 3 

During this period art and culture, which had 
long been developing in Ireland, came to higher per- 
fection. From very ancient times the pagan Irish 
were skilled in metal work, bronze, silver, gold, and 
enamel. This work was improved in Christian times, 
reaching its culmination in the tenth and eleventh 
centuries, after which, like other things Irish, it de- 
clined with the decadence of Gaelic life. The best 
sculpture was done in Christian times, and is seen in 
the Celtic crosses with their rings binding the arms 
of the crosses together. Many of them are orna- 
mented with very great skill. Ornamentation and 
illumination of manuscripts were carried to a won- 
drous degree of perfection, attaining highest excel- 
lence in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This was 
mainly the work of ecclesiastics, and was done mostly 
in monasteries, as elsewhere. The designs are very 
delicate and extremely complicated sometimes. The 
Book of Kelts, which is a manuscript of the four gos- 
pels, amazes them who behold it. Dating, perhaps, 

s Mrs. Green, pp. 53, 54. 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 25 

from the seventh century, it is one of the best speci- 
mens of ancient pen-work in existence: "the most as- 
tonishing book of the Four Gospels which exists in 
the world." 4 The Irish missionaries took this art 
with them wherever they went, and exquisite examples 
of their handiwork are preserved in many libraries 
abroad. 

The Gaels were celebrated musicians from very 
early times. Music also was further developed by the 
church, missionaries and ecclesiastics particularly de- 
lighting in the harp. There were also the tympan, a 
stringed instrument, and the bagpipe. The music 
was undoubtedly simple, but it has been very highly 
praised, and some of the airs have not often been 
equalled since. Enjoyment of music is thought to 
have been very general: young girls were wont to 
accompany their spinning with songs, there were milk- 
ing-songs, and the plowman soothed his horse with 
plaintive plow-whistles. During the best period Irish 
masters were much sought abroad, and the music of 
Wales and other countries was developed by Irish 
teachers. All through the Middle Ages and down 
into modern times Irish music continued. In course 
of time many of the airs were perceived to be plaintive 
and sad and in minor key, the outcome, as in Russia, 
perhaps, of downfall and long-continued oppression. 
Many pieces were preserved in memory, and handed 
down by tradition. Not until long after were collec- 
tions made. At the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

4 Joyce, quoting J. O. Westwood, p. 105. 



26 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

tury Thomas Moore composed his exquisite Irish 
Melodies to some of the old Irish airs. 

The fine old Celtic culture, stimulated and devel- 
oped by the influence of Christianity, might well have 
developed into something still more important to the 
world; for if Ireland was not a large island, so that 
the basis of its civilization was necessarily small, yet 
that civilization might have spread further and fur- 
ther, as it had begun to do, and affected western Eu- 
rope far more profoundly. That we never can know. 
As a matter of fact, Irish civilization and influence 
were not allowed to develop as they would. "The 
early history of Ireland is a story of arrested evolu- 
tion," said one who loved it and studied it well. 5 
There began now a series of invasions, disturbances, 
and misfortunes, which have thrust Erin back and 
kept her down even to the present. 

In early times there was a tribal England as well 
as a tribal Ireland, and each one in the midst of dis- 
order and warfare was stricken by barbarian invasion. 
Each one later recovered. Then to England came 
her greatest disaster, complete conquest at the hands 
of the Normans, with long ages of tyranny and misery 
for the masses of the people. But in the end con- 
querors merged with conquered, and there being no 
more conquest by alien masters, after a while Eng- 
land went her way prosperous and peaceful, on the 
road to imperial power. When, however, Ireland 
had recovered from the first invasion, she was struck 

e Clerigh, preface. 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 27 

again and again afterwards by alien enemies, who for 
centuries did not conquer completely, but were always 
strong enough to destroy her best chances for hap- 
piness and national growth. She showed, it is true, 
amazing power to absorb them, but scarcely was she 
about to merge within her one set of intruders when 
the work was ruined by the coming of others. This 
.is what gives such permanent and enduring interest 
to the story of ancient Erin and old Irish culture: 
less than three centuries after St. Patrick, Ireland's 
golden age — whatever may have been its defects, 
passed for unutterable time, and has only begun to 
reappear in the last generation. 

First came the Northmen and Danes. As Ger- 
manic barbarians overran the western provinces of 
the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, 
so the new countries of the west were scourged from 
the eighth to the tenth by Scandinavian barbarians 
from the north. Frankland, Italy, Normandy, Eng- 
land — the story is well known, with all of its horror 
and destruction. In 795 Norwegian pirates first ap- 
jDeared off the Irish coast, and there for two cen- 
turies Norsemen and Danes came again and again. 
Sometimes they were badly defeated; but the Gaels, 
disunited in separate tribes, were ill prepared to repel 
them. The principal ports were seized and held by 
the Danes, and Dublin became their great fortress 
and center of power. The result was not wholly bad, 
for in course of time the invaders were more famous 
for commerce than war. From of old there had been 



28 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

trade routes from Erin to Gaul and to Spain. For 
a while they were stopped by terror of the northern 
pirates, but presently the trading was developed by 
Northmen, and Ireland became the center of a com- 
merce more thriving than ever. None the less for a 
long time material civilization suffered much. Every- 
where monasteries were plundered and destroyed. 
There was terrible fighting against the intruders, and 
also much fighting between the various tribes of the 
Irish themselves. Indeed, from this time, some see a 
deterioration of character because of the terrible ex- 
periences which came to the people. One Danish in- 
trusion followed another like successive waves of the 
sea, and it may often have seemed that the Irish would 
be completely overrun. But as Alfred saved Eng- 
land from Danish power, so there rose up in Erin a 
mighty hero and king who crushed the invaders for a 
while and, maybe, saved the country from conquest. 
This was the famous Brian Boru. 

In England before the Norman Conquest there 
went on steadily among the German invaders the 
process of uniting the many little tribal kingdoms 
into a smaller number of larger kingdoms and then a 
long struggle between three large kingdoms to bring 
all Angle-land under one rule. This process, which 
fills the confused and wearisome annals of Anglo- 
Saxon times, was retarded by strong tribal and local 
feeling, and by absence of any national sentiment, 
and also by the invasions of the Danes. Nevertheless, 
it was approaching completion when William the 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 29 

Conqueror entered the island, overthrew the native 
ruler, and himself finished that unification of the 
country which the natives themselves might have 
worked out with more time. Apparently the same 
process was going on during the ninth and tenth cen- 
turies in Ireland. There was constant tribal warfare, 
in which, it may be, as many Gaels lost their lives as 
fell in fighting with the Danes. But some consolida- 
tion appeared, for while formerly there had been sev- 
eral kings under the overlordship of a higher king, 
at the end of the tenth century there were two king- 
doms, one in the north and one in the south, and the 
southern king, Brian Boru, presently reduced his rival 
to a subordinate position, and thus, as long as he 
could maintain his power, became king of all Ireland. 
He had attained, it may be, a position something like 
that which Egbert of Wessex had once held in Eng- 
land. Had he been able to establish his dynasty and 
consolidate his power, perhaps his successors could 
have done in Erin what Alfred's great followers did 
in making a united England. This was not to be. 
After several years of rule, which in later times seemed 
a happy and prosperous period, the Danes of Dublin 
with the men of Leinster, assisted by other Danes 
under a Viking leader, contested his power. In 1014 
Brian crushed a great army of Danes at the battle 
of Clontarf, fought in the present limits of Dublin 
city. He and his son and his grandson fell on the 
field, but Erin was saved from subjection to the 
heathen Danes. 



30 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Nevertheless, after Clontarf and the death of Brian 
Ireland fell back into a worse tribal warfare and con- 
fusion than before. During the next century and a 
half there was no longer a universally acknowledged 
over-king. Incessant was the strife and bloodshed. 
Great battles were fought under brave leaders and 
good men gave up their lives. In the midst of it 
all came further invasions of the Danes. 

It is true, the times were not wholly bad. After 
their victory the Irish did not try to expel the Danes 
already in Erin. Generally these settlers remained 
in the coast towns, which they largely controlled, 
carrying on a great part of the island's commerce, on 
the whole conducting themselves well, trading with 
the Gaelic inhabitants, intermarrying with them after 
a while, and giving some promise, perhaps, for the fu- 
ture of being absorbed into the people among whom 
they resided. There was also during this period some 
continuation of the material and intellectual progress 
of the centuries following Christianity. Missionaries 
continued to go abroad, and monasteries were still 
founded by Irishmen in faraway countries. Some 
of the foundations in Erin continued to be centers 
of intellectual life, and skilled workmen there con- 
tinued to toil at their handicrafts. Much exaggerated 
by some students, this period has been described as 
the second great revival of the Irish people. It is 
difficult to interpret an obscure past, so there may be 
much truth in such assertions, but detailed accounts 
of these times do not seem to warrant them; appar- 



IRISH CHRISTIANITY 31 

ently they result largely from the enthusiasm of the 
Irish revival of the last generation, and from the gen- 
erous emotion characterizing the intellectual aspects 
of Sinn Fein, rather than proper study of medieval 
Ireland. Compared with the glories of the time be- 
fore the Dane, the period seems to have been one of 
decadence. The development of the Irish people 
from tribal organization to national unity had not 
been achieved, and progressing slowly, it was fatally 
retarded by the disasters of the time of the North- 
men. Civilization, character, prosperity, had all de- 
clined, as they did in England, as they would any- 
where. That there was much improvement over the 
worst period of the Danish wars is evident, and the 
revival, such as it was, might have gone forward to 
far greater happiness and success, had the Gaelic peo- 
ple with their Danish neighbors remained undisturbed 
now and been left to the bettering influence of time. 
But as not enough time was given to the Anglo- 
Saxons in England, so in Ireland it was much more 
too short. In 1066 the Normans had conquered Eng- 
land; in the latter part of the twelfth century they 
began the acquisition of Ireland. In a certain sense, 
indeed, this was the completion of the Norman Con- 
quest. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 

From the seventeenth yeare of King Henry the Second, 
when the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ire- 
land . . . untill the nine and thirtith yeare of Queene ELIZ- 
ABETH, when that Royal army was sent over to suppresse 
Tirones Rebellion, which made in the end an universall and 
absolute conquest of all the Irishrie : it is most certaine, that 
the English forces sent hither, or raised heere from time to 
time, were ever too weake to subdue and master so many war- 
like nations (or Septs) of the Irish, as did possesse this Is- 
land. 

The first attempt to conquer this King dome, was but an 
adventure of a few private Gentlemen. 

Sir John Davies, A Discoverie of the State of 
Ireland: with the true Causes why that King- 
dom was never entirely subdued, etc. (London, 
1613). 

THE Angevin Empire in England and France 
reached its height under Henry II (1154-1189) . 
By marriage and inheritance he was master of a splen- 
did domain stretching from the border of Scotland 
down beyond the Channel to southern France. The 
holding together of these far-stretched dominions 
taxed all the ability of Henry, and under his suc- 
cessors the task was seen to be impossible. In the 
midst of his greater work, perhaps, he had cherished 
plans for rounding out his possessions by acquiring the 

32 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 33 

great island which lay near to England, which com- 
manded much of the traffic from his English ports to 
his cities in France, and from whose harbors went that 
commerce which the Danes had so well developed. 
The story has often been told that he resolved to at- 
tempt the conquest of Ireland, and so sent an emis- 
sary, John of Salisbury, to Pope Adrian IV, English 
by birth, to say that conditions in the island were 
grievous and crying for remedy, and desire permis- 
sion to take possession of the country so as to bring 
back the people to good order and religion. There 
is some doubt as to this. No reliable evidence exists 
that Henry ever sought a license from the Pope; but 
it seems clear that John of Salisbury did obtain for 
the king a concession of Ireland. It has been con- 
jectured that all of this was a part of the world poli- 
tics of the time played by popes against emperors. 
It was the ambition of a great line of pontiffs in the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries to render the papacy 
supreme in temporal matters, making themselves in 
the affairs of this world the head of a feudal hierarchy, 
in which princes and kings would hold their dominions 
as feudal dependencies of the Pope. William of Nor- 
mandy had received from Alexander II a ring and a 
banner on setting out for the conquest of England. 
Robert Guiscard had appeared before Nicholas II to 
hold his conquests in southern Italy as a fief of the 
Holy See. Later on, as is well known, John of Eng- 
land surrendered his kingdom to Innocent III and 
had it confirmed to him as a papal fief. In 1219 the 



34 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

king of the Isle of Man surrendered his kingdom to 
the Pope, and was reinvested with it as a fief, the in- 
vestiture being made with a ring sent for that pur- 
pose. It is thought that Adri-an was now strengthen- 
ing himself by conciliating the English king with a 
grant of Ireland. John of Salisbury says that the 
Pope granted Hibernia to Henry II to hold by hered- 
itary right, the Pope's power to do this being founded 
upon the Donation of Constantine, by which all is- 
lands pertain to the Roman Church ; and that he sent 
the king an emerald ring for investiture. Henry was 
not at first able to undertake an invasion of Ireland, 
but after a while events took place which caused a 
beginning. 

There was a king of Leinster, Dermot or Diarmaid, 
represented as a man of violence, guilty of many sins, 
but much like his fellows then. In 1166 he was over- 
come by his enemies and fled from Ireland under 
sentence of banishment. He went to Henry, and 
praying for help, offered to hold Leinster of Henry 
as lord. It may be that this roused again the inter- 
est of the king. He now got from Alexander III a 
confirmation of Pope Adrian'-s donation, .and a docu- 
ment explaining how the island had been granted to 
him, this document being the so-called Bull Laudabili- 
ter, about which controversy often has raged. It 
should be noticed that it was upon these papal grants 
that the claim of England was technically based. Ed- 
mund Burke once asserted that down to the Reforma- 
tion Englishmen founded their title upon Adrian's 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 35 

grant. An English statute of 1467 declared that "our 
Holy Father Adrian, Pope of Rome, was possessed 
of all the sovereignty of Ireland in his demesne as of 
fee, in right of his Church of Rome," that in order 
that vice might be subdued, he had alienated it to the 
king of England for a certain rent, by which grant 
the subjects of Ireland owed allegiance to the king 
of England as their sovereign lord. 1 At the time of 
the Reformation, it was asserted in Ireland that the 
Donation of Adrian was forfeited by Henry VIII 
and Edward VI when they renounced the Pope's spir- 
itual and temporal authority. But in 1555, on the 
supplication of Philip and Mary, Paul IV conferred 
upon English sovereigns the title of King of Ireland, 
without prejudice to the overlordship of the Pope. 
Somewhat later, when the Irish were about to offer 
the kingship to Philip of Spain, the Pope declared 
that he was astonished at this, "since it was easy to 
remember that the kingdom of Ireland belonged to 
the dominion of the Church, was held as a fief under 
it, and could not, therefore, unless by the Pope, be 
subjected to any new ruler." 2 

In the play of world politics at this time, Rome con- 
ferred Ireland upon Henry II as a feudal depend- 
ency. It may well be believed that misinformed as 
to religious conditions in the island, the popes desired 
to bring about the spiritual betterment of the people 

i Clerigh, p. 410. 

2 Ibid., pp. 410, 411. I am much indebted to this author for the light 
>vhich hi? researches afford in many dark places. 



36 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

by doing this. Actually, however, "the Gael, who de- 
served a better fate, were delivered into the hands of 
ruthless and rapacious adventurers." And so they 
were. Ireland had not even the fortune to be con- 
quered by a great and strong ruler and made a part 
of well-governed dominions, but was left to be de- 
spoiled by soldiers of fortune who strove to carve out 
estates for themselves at whatever violation of the 
rights of the natives and whatever cost in suffering 
and despair. Henry gave to Diarmaid letters patent 
authorizing his subjects to assist in restoring the 
chieftain. Then Diarmaid proceeded to England and 
Wales and enlisted in his cause certain adventurers, 
chief among them Strongbow, a ruined baron, to 
whom he promised his daughter and succession to 
Leinster. Preceded by other adventurers, Strong- 
bow invaded Ireland in 1170 with a force of 3,000 men 
and easily overcame all resistance. Diarmaid soon 
had Leinster again, and would have been glad, per- 
haps, to be rid of his dangerous helpers; but actually 
they were using him for their own purposes, and after 
his death, which soon occurred, they proceeded to win 
for themselves by the sword all they could take. 
These Welsh-Norman adventurers were, with their 
thorough efficiency and calculated terrorism, much 
like the Germans who entered Belgium and Poland 
five years ago. When they had taken certain cap- 
tives, one of their leaders declared : "We must either 
resolutely accomplish what we have undertaken, and 

sClcrigh, p. 412. 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 37 

stifling all emotions of pity utterly subjugate this re- 
bellious nation, by the strong hand, or indulging in 
deeds of mercy, as Raymond proposes, sail home- 
ward." And when he had spoken thus, says the 
chronicler, the limbs of the captives were broken, and 
they were cast headlong into the sea. 4 

So great was the invaders' progress that the jeal- 
ousy of Henry was aroused, for it seemed that a 
strong jurisdiction was about to be founded near his 
own. Therefore, setting sail from England with a 
small but powerful army, he landed in Ireland in 
1171, and received the submission of all the contest- 
ants, no one daring to resist him. He remained in 
Ireland for six months, spending Christmas in Dub- 
lin, whither the Irish princes were invited to come. 
They were much pleased at the attention shown them, 
and throughout his stay Henry treated them so that 
they believed he would regard their rights and pro- 
tect them from the greed of his barons. He caused 
a synod for church discipline to be held at Cashel. 
Most important of all, he made arrangements for the 
government of the country, in accordance with the 
feudal model which he knew so well in England. The 
land which the Irish people, following their tribal 
custom, considered to belong to themselves, he re- 
garded as his own, and divided it among his barons, 
always supposing that they would be able to con- 
quer it from the natives and hold it in possession. "It 
may be said that he gave the whole of Ireland to ten 

4 J bid., pp. 403, 404, 



38 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of his nobles." 5 From among his followers he ap- 
pointed governors of the principal towns which had 
submitted to him, commanding them to build castles 
to overawe the inhabitants of town and country 
around. Then he departed. During his stay all had 
gone well. He had done much to overthrow the old 
system, but it was being destroyed before he came. 
If only he could have remained to keep order and 
maintain some rude justice, with his admirable talent 
for organization and administration of government, 
it might have been well for the mass of the Irish peo- 
ple; but this could not be. Greater tasks called him 
in England and in his French lands. Since he left 
no strong force to represent his authority, the barons 
and soldiers of fortune now did as they pleased. 
Those to whom broad lands had been granted so easily 
strove to possess them. The natives resisted. Soon 
there was turmoil and bloodshed, plunder, and strife 
never-ending, with merciless treatment of the natives. 
When the Normans had conquered England they 
came in strong force under a great general who was 
able and stern in discipline and rule. England was 
soon subdued, and though during a great while there 
was misery for the Anglo-Saxon people, the worst 
that befell them was that while a new system was being 
established, they long remained the lowest class in the 
land of their fathers. During all those years of de- 
pression they lived under the best administered gov- 
ernment in western Europe, and in the end the bene- 

s Joyce, p. 263. 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 39 

fits were thoroughly shared by them. But such for- 
tune was not mingled with the bad fate of Ireland. 
Normans were conquering Ireland also; but they 
never came in a large body standing together under 
some great leader to do their work swiftly and well. 
Henry came as a visitor. What he might have done 
greatly was left to scattered bands of freebooters and 
seekers of fortune, under petty leaders, greedy and 
cruel, but rarely winning distinction for military or 
executive greatness. Nor were there enough of them 
to do their work quickly, and set up their system, such 
as it was. They were only able to distract the island 
for a long while, harry the people, destroy the good- 
ness of Celtic character and civilization, and make 
bloodshed, misery, and confusion. 

In equipment, in military science, in guile, the Nor- 
man invaders were so far superior to the natives that 
usually a small body could slaughter many of the ill- 
armed and lightly protected Celts. As a rule also 
the great Norman fortresses could not be captured 
by Irish siege or assault. Moreover, the tribal sys- 
tem, which produced constant local dissension, used up 
strength which might have opposed the stranger, and 
rendered united action or common defence well-nigh 
impossible. Therefore, while the Normans were 
sometimes defeated, and sometimes reduced to de- 
spair, they could never 'be overwhelmed or altogether 
expelled. On the other hand, because here was the 
feudal system at its worst, lacking strong control from 
good central government such as existed in England, 



40 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the Norman barons and leaders seldom acted in union. 
Poor communications through the country and the 
many wild and scantly peopled places hindered the 
invaders and were of much assistance to the rapid 
moving Irish in their wars of defence. Finally, the 
mere number of the invaders was not sufficient to ac- 
complish the task which they had set out to do. So, 
at last was what might have been foreseen in the be- 
ginning: like the Danes, the Normans had entered 
and could not be driven out, but like the Danes before 
them they were not able to subdue the island; and so 
there was again the endless bitterness and strife, the 
furious fighting, harrying and plundering, the wild 
life and misery and hardship, that lasted so long in 
the border country between England and Scotland. 
A new element had come into the land; but civiliza- 
tion and prosperity had been put far back. Irishmen 
think it a misfortune that their country was conquered 
by England. But it was a far greater misfortune 
that the conquest once undertaken was not during 
such a long time made complete. Nothing worse 
could have happened than that the kings of England 
took so little interest or could interfere so little, that 
Ireland was largely left to the pleasure of rapacious 
lords who sought not to subdue it to good government 
but to win great fortunes for themselves. 

After Henry's departure various governors ad- 
ministered in his place; but confusion and disorder 
increased in the absence of the one person strong 
enough for the difficulties of the situation. Raids by 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 41 

the colonists were answered with reprisals by the Irish. 
There were constant quarrels and destructive tur- 
moil. Prince John, youngest son of the king, some 
time before made ruler of Ireland, was sent by his 
father. But the prince was inexperienced and capri- 
cious. He lost the regard of the colonists at once, and 
his foolish and insolent followers alienated the Irish 
chiefs by plucking their beards and mocking their 
manners and dress. Suddenly the Irish rose, slaying 
many, and capturing numerous strongholds, so that 
John's power was ruined, as his influence was already 
gone. The country settled back into misery and de- 
pression : the Irish chiefs in constant tribal dissension ; 
the English nobles ever quarrelling; English and Irish 
always attacking each other. In 1210, John, now king 
of England, landed with a powerful army and over- 
awed all resistance. Something was done for the bet- 
ter governing of the country. Those parts of Ire- 
land under English control were divided into twelve 
shires, after the arrangement in England, and as the 
English afterward did in Scotland and Wales when 
they began to conquer those countries. In the Irish 
counties English law was to be administered in courts 
of justice erected for that purpose, and sheriffs and 
other local officers were appointed on the English 
model. It is important to notice here and in later 
times that this English law and administrative ma- 
chinery were for the Anglo-Norman settlers alone, 
the natives remaining outside it. 

Then followed the long reign of Henry III, at first 



42 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

a minor, and always a weakling, during which time 
there was distress and confusion in England, as al- 
ways when the central government was not in capable 
hands, while in Ireland, where as yet strong central 
government had not been erected, more than ever 
there was strife, anarchy, bloodshed, and woe. The 
Irish fought among themselves without ceasing. The 
English abetted now one party, now another, and 
again fell upon them all, as it served their interests. 
The Irish sometimes ceased their tribal disputes and 
turned upon the English, burning and spoiling their 
settlements. With such conditions often it was easy 
for the foreign adventurers to take more and more 
of the land of the Irish chieftains and people. So 
it continued all through the thirteenth century. Ed- 
ward I, so renowned for reforms in England, could 
give little attention to Ireland. England now was 
attempting the conquest of Scotland. The Irish in 
the north of their island saw with much interest the 
resistance of their kinsmen against Edward I and the 
victory of Bannockburn in the reign of his son. Al- 
ready they had appealed to the Pope against the Eng- 
lish. Now, they asked Robert Bruce, king of Scot- 
land, to send Edward, his brother, for their king. 
Edward Bruce came with an excellent army. He 
was joined by great numbers of the Irish, overran a 
large part of the north country, and defeated the 
English in numerous battles. For three years the 
hapless country was the scene of furious combats 
and was wasted and ruined by the contestants. There 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 43 

was immense destruction of property and enormous 
suffering by the people. Finally Bruce was defeated 
and slain by the English colonists, whom he had al- 
most driven to despair. But the unhappy country 
sank still lower into depression. In Ulster and in 
other places the colonists had almost entirely disap- 
peared, and Irish clans and their chiefs presumed 
possession. In Dublin the central government had 
been shaken to its base, and remained pitifully weak 
for many a year to come. Accordingly, Irish chiefs 
and English lords were more independent and tyran- 
nical than ever. There was incessant local and pri- 
vate war. Law was almost in abeyance. The 
wretched inhabitants were robbed and oppressed. 
There were the conditions which had existed in the 
England of the "Heptarchy," and in German coun- 
tries when robbers ruled by the Rhine. 

The representative of the king, the viceroy, was 
not often able to maintain his authority or keep order'' 
in the land committed to his charge, neither with re- 
spect to the natives unsubdued, nor with respect to 
the Norman nobles. Constantly they fought against 
the Irish ; as often they carried on strife among them- 
selves. The power of the viceroy declined, and pres- 
ently the strength of the invaders. Often the most 
powerful jurisdictions of the Anglo-Normans were 
the palatine counties, erected in Ireland, as they had 
been in England and elsewhere, on the frontier, for 
defense against the natives, and with the purpose of 
extending the conquest. In course of time, as the 



44 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

English kings neglected Ireland, palatine jurisdic- 
tions made up more than half of the territory held. 
Within these territories the rulers had power wellnigh 
independent, and usually heeded royal authority as 
much or as little as they pleased. In the course of the 
thirteenth century, as the Celtic inhabitants began to 
regain their power, the country of the Anglo-Nor- 
mans was restricted to various possessions of warriors 
who had come and conquered estates for themselves 
and their houses, and particularly to the district 
around Dublin known as the English Pale. 

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also 
the hold of England relaxed, little interest was taken 
in Ireland, and little attention bestowed. The cen- 
tral government of Ireland, representing in some 
measure the authority of England, weaker and 
weaker as time went on, was engaged in defense 
rather than extension of conquest. The native Irish, 
taking advantage of the weakness of the English and 
their dissensions, recovered some of their lands. But 
far more important than this was the gradual inter- 
mingling and fusion of the races, which in the course of 
this period became almost complete. "Henry II in 
1171 had led an army for 'the conquest' of Ireland. 
Three hundred years later, when Henry VII in 1487 
turned his thoughts to Ireland he found no conquered 
land." Outside the Pale "was a country of Irish 
language, dress, and customs. . . . Norman lords had 
married daughters of Irish chiefs all over the country, 
and made combinations and treaties with every prov- 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 45 

ince. Their children went to be fostered in kindly 
houses of the Irish. . . . Many settlers changed 
their names to an Irish form, and taking up the clan 
system melted into the Irish population. Irish 
speech was so universal that a proclamation of Henry 
VIII in a Dublin parliament had to be translated 
into Irish by the Earl of Ormond." 6 

There were many natural causes of this, the chief 
one being that the English settlers were always a 
minority living in the midst of a far greater number 
of Celtic inhabitants, who absorbed them in time, 
much as the Norman-French conquerors of England 
were absorbed by the Anglo-Saxons. There was also 
the reason that usually the older generations of 
English settlers were not favored by the English gov- 
ernment, and saw themselves passed by in favor of 
newer arrivals to whom was committed all honor and 
trust, and who treated them with contempt; the con- 
sequence being that the older families tended to iden- 
tify themselves with the Celts among whom they were 
living, rather than the governing class which repre- 
sented English authority. Hence the older settlers, 
once invaders and hated by the natives, became more 
Irish than the Irish themselves, regarding the authori- 
ties and the English of the Pale with aversion, and 
detested by them as "degenerate English" and dis- 
loyal. Norman shrines were erected to Irish saints. 
Anglo-Irish noblemen led the Celts in rebellion 
against English authority, and in course of time, some 

« Mrs. Green, pp. Ill, 112. 



46 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of them, like the Geraldines, were more trusted by the 
natives than most of the Irish chieftains. Irish poets 
carried their Celtic poems and traditions among the 
settlers. Anglo-Irishmen and Celts shared together 
in such revival of feeling and culture as the unhappy 
times allowed to develop. 

In the midst of the welter of anarchy and tribal 
dissension there were Irishmen who were renowned 
as astronomers and physicians. There were still as- 
semblies of learned men; there was still much copy- 
ing and recording by scribes. "It was no wonder," 
says a writer of this present generation, whose en- 
thusiasm beholds veiy vividly the goodness of times 
departed, "that in this high fervour of the country 
the Anglo-Normans, like the Danes and the North- 
umbrians before them, were won to a civilization so 
vital and impassioned, so human and gay." 7 

In the fourteenth century the English government 
became alarmed at the weakness of its authority in 
Ireland and the independence of the palatine lords, 
and attempted to strengthen the one and subdue the 
other. The Pale was steadily dwindling. Edward 
III sent over his son, afterwards Duke of Clarence, 
as lord lieutenant. The young prince went forth to 
save, if possible, the English colony, now reduced to 
desperate straits. He hated the Irish natives, and 
also the older settlers from England. His efforts 
had little success. Three times he came to Ireland. 

7 Mrs. Green, pp. 116, 117. 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 47 

At last in 1367, believing it impossible to conquer 
the island, he caused to be passed, in an Irish parlia- 
ment held at Kilkenny, with the purpose of saving the 
English settlement in the country, the celebrated 
Statute of Kilkenny, which aimed, in general, to pre- 
vent the further fusion of the races. The preamble 
of this law and other laws passed then expound a 
policy which may have seemed necessary to the unen- 
lightened statesmen of that time, but which, happily, 
English-speaking peoples have long since abandoned, 
and which contemporary students have been more 
accustomed to find in the doings of Teutonic peoples. 
The English settlers were becoming mere Irish in their 
speech and manner of living, had rejected the Eng- 
lish law, and submitted themselves to the Irish, and 
had so married and allied themselves with the natives 
that the English power in the island seemed threat- 
ened. So now the Statute of Kilkenny forbade, 
under pain of death, intermarriage, fosterage, and in- 
timate relations of any kind with the Irish. The 
English settlers were forbidden to use Irish names, 
language, customs, or dress, under penalty of for- 
feiture of property; and the Irish living among the 
English were forbidden to use the Irish language or 
submit to the Brehon Law. This statute carried 
further the fatal policy, which had been adopted by 
the English government from the beginning, of en- 
tirely separating the two races, or making unavoid- 
able intercourse between them painful and unfriendly. 



48 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Its benefits were intended largely for the English. 
In so far as it succeeded, its evil heritage has lasted 
to the present. 

It is manifest, that such as had the Government of Ireland 
under the Crowne of England, did intend to make a per- 
petuall separation and enmity betweene the English and the 
Irish; pretending (no doubt) that the English should in the 
end roote out the Irish : which the English not being able to 
do, did cause a perpetuall Warre betweene the nations : 
which continued foure hundered and odde yeares, and would 
have lasted to the Worlds end ; if in the end of Queene Eliza- 
beths raigne, the Irishy had not beene broken and conquered 

bv the Sword. 8 

t 

The Statute of Kilkenny was passed for the pur- 
pose of stopping all fusion of the races, and keeping 
intact a strong English element in Ireland upon which 
the power of England might be based in holding the 
island. Its failure was complete. It was not strictly 
enforced, and probably could not be. English and 
Irish had been mingling more and more for some 
generations, trading, intermarrying, fostering. The 
English settlers themselves frequently petitioned that 
the law be not enforced; their petitions seem often 
to have been granted; and the law became a dead 
letter. But because this policy, pernicious as now we 
see it, was successful in its immediate purpose when- 
even it could be enforced, it remained, and attempts 
were made to support it in later legislation. By 
divers penal laws the English were forbidden to marry 

s Sir John Davies, A Discoverie of the State of Ireland, etc., in Col- 
lection of Tracts and Treatises, i. 643. 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 49 

or trade with the Irish, especially in the time of Henry 
VI and of Henry VIII. Nevertheless, there was a 
constant tendency for the English settlers to drift 
toward fusion with the natives. On one occasion 
King Richard II of England described the inhabi- 
tants as of three classes: the "Irish enemies," by whom 
he meant the natives outside the pale of the English 
law, the Irish rebels, or English settlers and natives 
who had once obeyed the authority of England, and 
the English subjects. 

The long reign of Edward III passed with wars 
abroad in France and then trouble and corruption at 
home. For England the splendid and specious vic- 
tories on the fields of France were dearly purchased 
in weakening hold upon Ireland. Richard, the next 
sovereign, came over with the greatest army which 
had ever been brought there, and for a while submis- 
sion was enforced and order was restored. But im- 
mediately upon his departure the evils reappeared, 
and Richard's expedition in the last year of his reign 
to restore what was falling, ended in disaster, a mis- 
fortune in no small degree responsible for the loss of 
his life and his crown. Under the Lancastrian kings 
of the dynasty which followed, 1399-1461, English 
power diminished and decayed. The Lancastrian 
kings had not the best title to the throne, and both 
Henry IV and Henry VI had many difficulties at 
home. Henry V undertook a great enterprise of 
conquest abroad, but again it was in richer and more 
promising fields, and the victories which were gained 



50 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

brought glory in France, but no substantial power, 
and nothing at all in Ireland. So, during the 
fifteenth century as in the fourteenth, English mili- 
tary power was wasted where it could bring no per- 
manent gain, when a part of it wisely employed might 
have conquered Ireland completely, and established 
settled government and order for the lasting benefit 
of both English and Irish. Once, in 1449, Richard, 
Duke of York, came from England and ruled with 
firm and capable hand. He was appointed lord lieu- 
tenant for ten years with extraordinary powers. He 
had hopes of becoming king of England later on, 
and like others in the future, attempted to base his 
power to some extent upon Irish support. He be- 
came very popular, but after a short stay returned to 
England, where he lost his life in the Wars of the 
Roses. 

So, the conquest of Ireland by England, under- 
taken, like the conquest of England, by Norman 
adventurers, but carried out on a less grand scale, 
usually with scattered forces and dissipated strength, 
and seldom under the guidance of an able ruler, had 
in the course of the two centuries elapsed since the 
days of Strongbow and Henry II failed almost en- 
tirely except in one thing. Ireland had not been 
subdued and rendered truly dejoendent upon England 
or in any real sense made part of a greater empire. 
Nor had any Anglo-Norman regime of conquerors 
been set up in Ireland, developing well-ordered power 
independent of England. What had been done in 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 51 

the beginning had continued with diminishing 
strength: English settlers had established themselves 
about Dublin, in Leinster, and along the east coast; 
Norman barons and soldiers of fortune had built up 
for themselves petty jurisdictions in which they ruled 
often with palatine powers. Neither the settlers 
under the king's viceroy at Dublin, nor the great 
lords who went their own way had been strong enough 
to complete the conquest. From time to time great 
sovereigns came from England with strong forces, 
received submission and obedience, then departed, and 
their authority vanished largely when they had gone. 
And the most wretched thing about it all was that the 
Irish natives, who might have been best off if left to 
work out their own civilization which they had begun 
to develop, but who, lacking that good fortune, would 
have been happiest in the end if they had been quickly 
subdued, governed strongly and well, and given 
security and order, and chance to take part in the 
rising culture and prosperity of western Europe, that 
these natives were by the circumstances of the Eng- 
lish conquest on the one hand debarred from living 
in peace under their own Gaelic customs and on the 
other hand were not given and not allowed for the 
most part to receive such benefits as the Anglo-Nor- 
man intruders could offer. The stranger could not 
subdue the native, the native could not drive the in- 
vader out. One might have predicted that however 
great would be the suffering resulting from this for 
the time being- in the end the two peoples would 



52 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

settle down together, and mingling and learning to 
respect each other would have mutual benefit at last. 
That result did indeed come to a considerable extent, 
and there was in the midst of all the confusion and 
misery of the times some revival of prosperity and 
much promise for the future. But the English gov- 
ernment at Dublin strove so far as it could to pre- 
vent this very thing. It was not strong enough to 
prevent much fusion of the races; it was too weak to 
establish good order and good government on any 
model in the island; yet such legislation as it could 
enforce was intended to keep English and Irish apart, 
and make of the natives inferiors and outcasts. This, 
as we see it now, is the tragedy of medieval Ireland, 
and the most grievous error, perhaps, of English ad- 
ministration. In the course of time, many of the 
Irish, hopeless, it may be, of salvation in any other 
way, themselves desired to have English adminis- 
tration and law extended to them. "I note as a great 
defect in the Civill policy of this kingdom," says Sir 
John Davies, attorney-general in Ireland in the time 
of James I, "that for the space of 350 yeares at least 
after the Conquest first attempted, the English lawes 
were not communicated to the Irish, nor the benefit 
and protection therof allowed unto them, though they 
earnestly desired and sought the same." 9 And he 
says: 

Perhaps the Irishy in former times did wilfully refuse 
to be subject to the Lawes of England, and would not be 
9 Collection of Tracts and Treatises, i. 645, 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 53 

partakers of the benefit thereof, though the Crowne of Eng- 
land did desire it ; and therefore, they were reputed Aliens, 
Outlawes, and enemies. Assuredly, the contrarie doth ap- 
peare, aswell by the Charters of Denization purchased by 
the Irish in all ages, as by a petition preferred by them to 
the King, Anno 2 Edward Third: desiring that an act 
might passe in Ireland, whereby all the Irishrie might be 
inabled to use and injoy the Lawes of England. ... I am 
well assured, that the Irishry did desire to be admitted to 
the benefit of the Law not onely in this petition . . . but 
by all their submissions made to King Richard the Second, 
and to the Lord Thomas of Lancaster before the warres 
of the two Houses ; and afterwards . . . when King Henry 
the Eight began to rcforme this kingdome. 10 

By no means did the Irish generally desire to give 
up their own and submit to the alien English law. 
During the fifteenth century their power seemed to 
increase and that of the English to wane. In spite 
of all obstacles they were absorbing the English out- 
side the Pale and even within it. But their own 
progress had received a fatal setback. Left to them- 
selves it may be that they would, like other peoples, 
have evolved a strong central government for an 
Irish nation in Ireland, out of the lower tribal sys- 
tem in which they were living. But this, which is one 
of the most intricate and difficult tasks which ever 
arises in the life of a people, they were not able to 
accomplish now. Ireland in the time of the Anglo- 
Normans and of English domination remained what 
it had been during the Danish wars and before, a 

10 Ibid., pp. 643, 644. 



54 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

country of tribal divisions, in which local warfare and 
brutality and destruction ever continued. How far 
this fatal inability to unite in peace and good order 
was due to inherent political defect in Irish character, 
as was once so widely believed among Anglo-Saxons, 
or how far it was the natural consequence of the evil 
fate which descended upon the Gaels, one cannot know 
now, and one will decide as sympathy and prejudice 
direct. 

So the Middle Ages drew to a close. The Irish 
raided the English settlements, drove the inhabitants 
farther back, took many of their castles, and in peace 
absorbed many of the settlers and made of them Irish- 
men. The Irish chieftains fought among themselves, 
plundered, slew, and burned, in furtherance of their 
petty local ambitions. The great lords, descended 
from adventurers once out of England and Wales, 
were getting to be local Irish potentates, and con- 
ducted themselves with the independence and regard 
for their own interests which characterized the lawless 
barons of England in the worst days of maintenance 
and livery. The Pale shrank farther and farther 
back toward Dublin. The power of England, feeble 
at home, was almost gone in Ireland. What Eng- 
land had accomplished in Ireland was mostly an evil 
thing. She had not really conquered it, but she had 
been able to retard its own development, keep its 
people from their heritage, whatever that might have 
been, and she had sowed evil seeds for the future. As 



ANGLO-NORMANS IN IRELAND 55 

one peers far back into this old time, he is oppressed 
with sadness more than with anger, for here was the 
result of circumstance, ignorance, and incapacity, 
rather than malevolent intention. 



CHAPTER IV 

CONQUEST AND TAKING OF THE LAND 

It seems incredible that a race so utterly destroyed by 
sword, fire, and famine did not absolutely perish, and that 
provinces so devastated could have ever recovered. But 
the race did not perish. In spite of all, the native Irish 
survived, gathered strength again, and retilled their wasted 
lands. . . . Annihilation was tried, God only knows with 
what desperate thoroughness, but it failed. 

Lord Dunraven, The Legacy of Past Years, p. 33. 

In Ireland there was peace. The domination of the 
colonists was absolute. The native population was tran- 
quil with the ghastly tranquillity of exhaustion and of 
despair . . . more than a century passed away without 
one general insurrection. . . . Nor was this submission the 
effect of content, but of mere stupefaction and brokenness 
of heart. The iron had entered into the soul. 

Macaulay, History of England, chapter xvii. 

WHAT we call the medieval period had come 
to an end as the result of slow operation of 
many causes. Tribalism lingered on in Ireland and 
in north Scotland; feudal disorganization was to 
continue for long years in Italy and the German 
lands; but generally in western Europe there began a 
modern period, characterized by profound religious, 
political, and intellectual changes. In the most pro- 
gressive parts of Europe large political alterations 

56 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 57 

were taking place. This was a time in Spain, in 
France, and in England when old local jurisdiction 
was finally giving place to strong central government; 
when small divisions of the people were at last being 
united through a rising spirit of union and national- 
ism ; when compact nations were getting strong rulers 
and more capable administration and greater peace, 
security, and prosperity. These tasks were almost 
completed at the end of the Middle Ages, and once 
accomplished there was to come a period when men's 
minds would turn to enterprises strange and new. 
In the Renaissance they would explore realms of the 
intellect long forgotten or not discovered before. In 
the Reformation they would search profoundly the 
religion which had so long sustained them. It was 
the age of discovery: new lands were to be found, 
and there would be in the strong young nations just 
formed the ambition to build empires, to subdue other 
peoples, and include them in new, greater, and 
stronger jurisdictions. There was freshness of 
thought, new power of mind, large ambition, and 
sense of power. Alas, it was also an age of inhu- 
manity and crudeness. Many a wicked thing was 
to be done, because men knew no better yet, and be- 
cause they had not learned to care. Englishmen now 
with their heritage of humanity from the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries, deplore the things done in 
Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
But it might have been well for some rash Irishmen in 
the past few years to remember that the hard and evil 



58 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

practices of Englishmen then were never more organ- 
ized or more widely and deliberately applied than in 
the scientific barbarism of the Germans in the great 
war lately ended. Englishmen sinned long ago, and 
have long since repented and sought to atone. What 
they did crudely generations ago has been partly ap- 
plied in Prussian Poland and Alsace-Lorraine since 
the time of Bismarck, and terribly in all of Europe 
which the Germans could reach in the years after 
1914. 

The Tudor and Stuart periods of English and of 
Irish history are the time when an English nation- 
state having been built up from London, England 
strove to acquire possessions overseas, and thus 
make a greater Britain. From rising ambitions and 
new consciousness of power, and also because of 
political necessities, in competition with Spain and 
with France, England tried to conquer Ireland com- 
pletely. This was undertaken in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and in the seventeenth it was completed. After 
long wars, after immense misery and woe, the pro- 
cess of conquest was finished. It was made terrible 
by systematic taking of the land from the natives, 
for conquest and confiscation went hand in hand. 

In 1485 Henry VII ascended the throne of Eng- 
land. His position was difficult at first, and he came 
at the end of a period of confusion and disorder in 
England, but he was a man of very great ability, 
and in the end he succeeded very largely in what he 
undertook, which was the making of a strong state 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 59 

and government and also a united nation. After- 
wards men thought that his years were the beginning 
of modern, times in England. When he began his 
work England's authority in Ireland had disappeared. 
The Pale was only a small district about Dublin, in 
which the people lived in terror of the Irish tribes, 
for the sake of peace paying them blackmail. Else- 
where the English settlers had come to be as Irish 
almost as the natives, using Celtic speech, manners, 
and law. The great men descended from Norman in- 
vaders were powerful Irish lords; they had their bards 
and their historians like Gaelic chieftains; often they 
did not know English; and some of them, like the 
Geraldines, descendants of men who had come in 
Strongbow's time, were more trusted and followed 
by the Celtic inhabitants than sons of old Gaelic 
houses. 

The English colonists in Ireland had sided with 
York in the great wars of the fifteenth century, and 
now twice received opponents of Henry, pretenders 
to the throne. Therefore, the king resolved to make 
certain changes in Ireland which would bring the 
island more completely under his power. In 140', 
Sir Edward Poynings was sent out as lord deputy. 
In that year he convened at Drogheda a parliament 
at which was passed the well-known Poynings Law. 
It provided that thereafter no parliament might be 
held in Ireland until the Irish executive and privy 
council had informed the English king of the legis- 
lation intended, and until the proposed laws had been 



GO IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

approved by the king and his council. Existing 
English laws affecting the public weal were to have 
force in Ireland. Most of the Statute of Kilkenny 
was revived and confirmed. Generally in after times 
the first of these provisions was known as Poynings 
Law. By its operation the Irish parliament, which 
had developed during the Middle Ages with the par- 
liament of England, which had been independent ex- 
cept in so far as it was subordinate to the king, and 
which had on one memorable occasion in 1449 dis- 
tinctly asserted its independence, was reduced to en- 
tire dependence upon the king of England and his 
council. It was indeed only a parliament of the Eng- 
lish settlers in Ireland, so that the great body of the 
population, the Celtic natives, cared nothing, perhaps, 
for its fate, governed as they still were by Brehon 
and old Irish custom; yet later on, when English law 
was extended over all the country, it became the in- 
strument by which England dealt with the Irish peo- 
ple. 

Henry attempted to govern Ireland through Eng- 
lish officials, but succeeded no better than others be- 
fore him. He then turned to a powerful Anglo-Irish 
leader, Gerald Fitzgerald, "the great Earl of Kil- 
dare," who had been doing much as he pleased. "All 
Ireland cannot rule this man!" was the well-known 
accusation against him. "Then if all Ireland can- 
not rule him, he shall rule all Ireland," said the king, 
as he made him the lord lieutenant. He continued a 
faithful servant to the king, and afterward to Henry 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 61 

VIII, acting with vigor in the tribal wars, and fight- 
ing against Irish chieftains. His son and his grand- 
son followed in this high position, while from time to 
time great officials were sent out from England. 

In general the policy of Henry VIII was one of 
conciliation, though he dealt with the chieftains and 
lords, and, as was usual then, recked little of the mass 
of the people. There was much confusion. There 
were rebellions and wars which brought unspeakable 
desolation and misery; and after varying adventures 
the Geraldine house of Kildare was nearly extermi- 
nated. As the aristocracy was humbled in England 
by the strong rising power of the king, so were the 
great Anglo-Irish houses destroyed or bridled in Ire- 
land. And the vast changes in England when Henry 
broke with Rome and took the monastic property, 
reached into Ireland also. The king attempted after 
a while to assert his position in Ireland as much as in 
England. In 1536 and the following year, an Irish 
parliament declared Henry supreme head of the 
church, and dissolved all connection with the Pope. 
Religious houses were suppressed and their property 
taken as in England. Old laws were revived which 
prevented the mingling of the English and the Irish. 
Bribery and cunning completed what the king did 
not accomplish by force, and the Irish chiefs were 
incited to work one another's destruction. At last 
in the midst of misery and confusion, and as a result 
of the king's continued policy of pressure and per- 
suasion, the Irish leaders were disposed to submit to 






62 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

him and make peace. Accordingly, in 1541, a parlia- 
ment was assembled, which, for the first time, Irish 
natives attended. Many of the Anglo-Irish members 
understood no English, so that the speeches were 
rendered in Gaelic. Here was conferred upon 
Henry and his successors the title of king of Ireland, 
formally enhancing his authority, and relieving him of 
the older title once conferred by the Pope. This 
statute passed in a parliament said to have been care- 
fully bribed and packed, was carried without dissent, 
and was followed by general submission to the king, 
not the first, yet the first real submission. Every 
chief of consequence in the country gave his alle- 
giance. 

This yielding to the king's temporal and ecclesias- 
tical authority, brought about by his conciliatory at- 
titude, by his skilful management, and by wide dis- 
tribution of honors and favors, was not a submission 
of the Irish people, who took no part in it and knew 
little or nothing about it. Henry had won the chiefs 
by giving them the titles to the tribal lands which by 
Brehon Law were the property of the members of the 
clan or the tribe. The ownership of the members had, 
indeed, for a long time been weakening with the 
gradual weakening of the Celtic law, from the influ- 
ence of English settlers and from economic changes, 
so that the position of many of the members had come 
to be that of the old fudirs or non-free members of the 
community. Nevertheless memory of the old right 
lingered deep in the consciousness of the people, even 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 63 

where it was dying in fact, and the memory persisted 
for a long while after. In Ireland, as in England, 
the great changes of this period were carried through 
by the government and the leaders. After a while 
it was seen that in England the mass of the people 
wished them, and so they remained. But this was not 
so in Ireland. The chiefs had in some manner been 
won to the English king; the people clung to their 
old religious system and rights of tribe and of land. 
There was still to be reckoning with them. 

In respect of Ireland the conduct of Henry, marred 
though it was by evil, had been, if the age is con- 
sidered, moderate and not very cruel. It was neither 
enlightened nor considerate of the Celtic people. 
The general idea was always to prevent the absorption 
of the English settlers into the Irish people, and also, 
if possible, to effect the Anglicizing of the Gaelic in- 
habitants. Steadily the power of the king was en- 
larged. For the most part his policy succeeded, and 
at the end of the reign the chiefs seemed contented, 
the country was at peace, and it appeared that the 
English power in the island was stronger than ever 
before. 

But now began a time more dreadful than any be- 
fore it, a period of religious divergence and larger 
political ambitions, a period of great rebellions, ter- 
rible defeats, widespread confiscations of the land, 
and methodical plantation of aliens in the island; and 
when at last at the end of the seventeenth century 
the thing was done, the Irish people were ruined and 



64 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

submerged, their religion trampled down, and their 
Irish culture very largely destroyed. Under Mary 
and Elizabeth and James I, English power in Ireland 
was established and consolidated by ruthless war and 
expulsion and even extermination of the Celtic peo- 
ple, and the planting of Englishmen and Scotchmen 
in their place ; and this policy, which seems so horrible 
now, was often urged forward by the English settlers 
ever more closely bound to England. 

In England the Reformation began openly in the 
reign of Edward VI. In 1551 Protestant doctrines 
and forms were brought into Ireland. The Catholic 
system was restored under Mary, but overthrown 
again when Elizabeth came to the throne. In Eng- 
land the process of transition was difficult enough, 
but as time went on the majority of the people gave 
up their attachment to Rome, and this was evident 
by the time the Armada was defeated. But in Ire- 
land the change was made by authority and not ac- 
cepted by the Irish natives. 

So there came into being the last of the great forces 
which have operated to keep the English and the 
Irish peoples apart. There had been differences of 
temperament and of race ; one had developed a strong 
national government, the other remained with its 
tribal polity ; the one had developed its Common Law, 
the other clung to the Brehon customs ; and yet in the 
course of time there had been so much fusion as to 
promise well for the future, except that this fusion 
was absorbing the English into the Irish, whereas the 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 65 

English government desired to draw Irishmen unto 
itself. Perhaps this might have been done after a 
while, as much as in Wales or in Scotland, but now 
came another influence to hold the two apart, rein- 
forcing the other obstacles until there was a barrier 
scarce to be crossed. Since the days of Patrick and 
Columba the Irish people had been of the old Cath- 
olic faith. It was administered to them by priests 
who spoke the Gaelic tongue. When the Irish church 
was regulated under Elizabeth, provision was made 
that none should be appointed as pastors unless they 
spoke English. This was strictly in accord with con- 
temporary ideas of consolidating English power and 
rendering the people English, but it resulted in this, 
that Protestantism got no hold on the people, and that 
the old faith, taught now by the priests proscribed, 
came to be a thing peculiarly their own, with the 
Protestant religion in their minds pertaining to the 
oppressor. Hence the Irish clung to Catholicism 
with all the passionate fervor of their nature, and in 
the days of strong religious feeling, persecution, and 
religious Mars, a great gulf was fixed which remains 
to the present. The Irish were Roman Catholics; 
but Protestantism remained the state religion until 
the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869. 

A variety of forces worked together now for the 
destruction of Celtic Ireland. Social, economic, and 
religious factors aroused discontent in the natives and 
drove them into rebellion. Steadily also English 
power was exerted to make Ireland more truly a de- 



66 IRELAND AXD ENGLAND 

pendency of England. They are mistaken who be- 
lieve that this resulted merely from blind greed and 
lust after conquest. It was in pursuance of sound 
statecraft that Ireland was sought and held firmly. 
"The things men fight for" are often the result of 
natural forces and geographical position rather than 
human passion. As the rivalries of great states de- 
veloped at this time and the greater rivalries of em- 
pires and colonial dominions, it was seen, what had 
not been so true before, that because of mere geo- 
graphical position England was not safe with Ire- 
land uncontrolled or unfriendly. "In the great sea- 
wars of the past," says Admiral Lord Charles Beres- 
ford, "Ireland has always been regarded by the enemy 
as providing the base for a flank attack upon Eng- 
land." * It was in Ireland that the pretenders began 
their operations in the time of Henry VII, and assist- 
ance to the natives was one of the schemes of France 
in the rivalry between Henry VIII and Francis. 
With the great development of English and of Span- 
ish sea power in the time of Elizabeth and Philip II, 
Ireland became almost as great a problem to English 
statesmen dealing with the machinations of Spain as 
England was to the Spanish leaders striving to re- 
conquer the Netherlands. In each case the naval and 
geographical situation was of immense importance. 
Actually Philip did attack England through Ireland, 
sending troops to the Irish rebels, and some of the 

i "Home Rule and Naval Defence," in Against Home Rule, the Case 
for the Union (London, 1912), p. 189. 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 67 

best known military exploits of Sir Walter Raleigh 
were in grim and merciless fighting against the in- 
vaders. When the Stuart kings attempted to erect 
a despotism of divine right in England, their great 
minister turned to Ireland as a source of soldiers and 
supplies. As naval power further developed and 
naval strategy was more deliberately worked out, a 
stroke at England through Ireland became part of 
the plan of every one of the enemies of England. 
So it remained throughout the wars with France in 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, just as it 
was in the mind of Bernhardi at the beginning of the 
twentieth. Admiral Mahan once pointed out how in 
the crisis of the struggle between England and France 
in the days of William and Mary, the French fleet 
struck at the allied fleets in the Channel while a strong 
French force Mas sent against the English line of 
communication across Irish waters ; and readers of the 
narrative of Macaulay will not forget how a French 
expedition went to the assistance of James and the 
Irish soldiers in Ireland. So it was in the wars which 
followed the French Revolution. There were at- 
tempts to land French troops in Ireland in 1796 and 
1798. If it be said that Spaniards and Frenchmen 
were called by Irishmen to help them to be free of 
intolerable conditions and win their independence, it 
must be answered that this is certainly true; but it 
must at the same time be said that for their part 
France and Spain were using Ireland to damage 
England, and that to England the secure possession 



68 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of Ireland seemed from the nature of things a matter 
of vital necessity. I shall hereafter endeavor to show 
that this fundamental element in political and mari- 
time strategy has not disappeared, but has assumed 
more importance with the passage of time, and that 
recently it has constituted the most important of all 
the reasons why the people of Great Britain, with a 
view to the interests of their forty millions of people, 
dare not think of the separation from them of Ireland 
or of its complete independence. Unfortunately this 
condition of things will persist so long as there are 
international rivalries and wars and rumors of wars. 
Therefore the English statesmen who sought to 
build up a strong England in the company of a greater 
Spain and a greater France, made it a definite and 
fundamental policy to bind Ireland to England 
securely. For all larger purposes the British Isles 
are one group whose different peoples would be best 
off together, supposing there was fair dealing be- 
tween them, and the experience of ages has made this 
evident to the inhabitants of Scotland and Wales. 
In the course of time it would doubtless have been 
manifest to the Irish people that their best interests 
lay in union with England in respect of all world 
affairs, so that a conquest thorough and complete 
would ultimately have been no disaster, had the con- 
querors been generous and humane, and shared with 
their new subjects the rights and privileges which 
they held dear themselves. This is where memory 
arises in judgment, and this is why the past has 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 69 

put such a curse on the present : it is not that Ireland 
should not have been united closely with England, 
but that there ought not to have been such a terrible 
fate meted out to the Irish in the process. 

Seldom has such doom fallen upon men and women 
in modern times as came with the complete conquest 
of Ireland. The land was taken from its Irish pos- 
sessors, and the natives driven out, slaughtered, or re- 
duced to servitude awful and hopeless. It is difficult 
to understand it all now. Some of the blame must 
be put upon the cruel spirit of the times; something 
to the inherent difficulties of the case. There had 
been age-long fighting and disorder in Ireland, tribal 
warfare, burning and plundering on both sides. 
There was mighty danger then; strong was the feel- 
ing of the age of colonial conquest and religious wars ; 
fearful and drastic remedies were wont to be applied. 

In 1547, in the reign of Edward VI, after the con- 
quering of some Irish chiefs, the country of Leix and 
Offaly was given to certain Englishmen in much the 
same fashion that territory was later on granted to 
adventurers in Virginia and Carolina. They pro- 
ceeded at once to expel the native inhabitants and 
put English tenants in their place. Whatever may 
be thought of the consequences of this in a thinly 
peopled country like Maryland or Massachusetts Bay, 
and of the ensuing spoliation of the Indians, the con- 
sequences were very horrible in a populous country 
like Ireland, where the old possessors naturally re- 
sisted with desperation, and were hunted like beasts 



70 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of prey. All during the reign of Edward fighting 
went on savagely, and the promoters of the enterprise 
profited little. In Mary's time the country was made 
into two counties, property of the crown, to be held 
strongly, divided into farms and estates, and replanted 
with English settlers. Such was the beginning of the 
plantation system in Ireland. A war of extermina- 
tion was carried on with torture and murder, the un- 
happy Irish making savage reprisals. Thus by the 
time of Elizabeth the question of land, the most im- 
portant of all to the natives, was definitely added to 
religious difference and religious persecution, and the 
two increased the old tribal resistance and warfare. 

Ireland was the most troubled part of Elizabeth's 
dominions, and there some of her great captains, like 
Essex, Sidney, and Raleigh, rose in service, and did 
terrible deeds which their admirers wish not to remem- 
ber. In the south, in Munster and Connaught, the 
ceaseless feuds of the Butler and Geraldine families 
culminated about 1565 in the rebellion of the Catholic 
Earl of Desmond, leader of the Fitzgeralds. Over 
Munster, Connaught, and at length over Leinster, the 
fighting spread, engrossing the attention of the lord 
deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, and other English lead- 
ers. At last, after years of terrible and weary fight- 
ing, the struggle ended with the death of the Irish 
leader and all resistance was crushed. Starvation 
and systematic destruction completed what the sword 
had done partly. In 1582 information was given to 
Elizabeth that 30,000 had been starved to death in 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 71 

Minister as a result of destroying the crops. The 
poet Spenser wrote of the advantage to be gained by 
this method: "the end will ... be very short and 
much sooner than can be in so great a trouble, al- 
though there should none of them fall by the sword 
. . . yet thus being kept from manurance, and their 
cattle from running abroad, by this hard restraint 
they would quickly consume themselves, and devoure 
one another." He gives a picture of desolation and 
despair to stir the heart even now: 

Ere one yeare and a halfe they were brought to such 
wretchednesse, as that any stony heart would have rued the 
same. Out of every corner of the woods and glynnes, they 
came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legges could 
not beare them ; they looked like anatomies of death, they 
spake like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did eate 
the dead carrions, happy where they could finde them, yea, 
and one another soone after, insomuch as the very carcasses 
they spared not to scrape out of their graves ; and, if they 
found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they 
flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to con- 
tinue therewithall ; that in short space there were none al- 
most left, and a most populous and plentifull countrey sud- 
dainely left voyde of man and beast. . . . 2 

The details of the struggle have been forgotten, but 
the memory of horror long remained imprinted in the 
national traditions. 

In 1586 the estates of Desmond and his adherents, 
about 1,000,000 acres, were confiscated. Proclama- 

2 A View of the State of Ireland, etc. (1596), in Collection of Tracts 
and Treatises, i. 525, 526, 

I 



72 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

tion in England invited gentlemen to undertake the 
plantation of this rich territory. The "undertakers" 
were to settle English families on their holdings as 
tenants, and no Irish were to be taken. Low rents 
and other inducements were offered to attract set- 
tlers. Sir Walter Raleigh took 42,000 acres in Cork 
and Waterford; Edmund Spenser 12,000 in Cork. 
But this first plantation in Munster was largely a fail- 
ure. Not many settlers came from England; the 
natives were not expropriated, and such as survived 
the fighting and turmoil which ensued were received 
as tenants. But the local Irish gentry was destroyed, 
and English landlords, many of them absentees, ap- 
peared in their stead. 

Meanwhile in Ulster, in the north, much the same 
thing had occurred. About 1551 began a rising led 
by Shane O'Neill. A long struggle ensued, in which 
tribal dissension and opposition to the English were 
mingled together. O'Neill desired to free Ulster 
from English influence and unite the northern tribes 
under his rule. After many vicissitudes, and griev- 
ous trouble to the English leaders, at last he was 
ruined. His attainder was followed by the confisca- 
tion of more than half of Ulster. At once an at- 
tempt was made to drive out the natives and plant 
English settlers in their stead. In 1573 several no- 
blemen tried to make a fortune in this enterprise. 
Soon came burning, slaughter, and destruction of 
crops, massacre, treachery, and ferocious resistance 
by the natives. 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 73 

Little wonder that Spaniards were invited to bring 
help to the natives, and that in the great struggle 
of the time of the Armada emissaries of the Pope 
and of Spain easily stirred up trouble in the island. 
In 1595, during the later years of Elizabeth, the earl 
of Tyrone led a great movement against the English 
in Ulster. He sought help from Spain, and after 
many adventures won a considerable triumph. Es- 
sex, favorite of the queen, was sent with a powerful 
army, but accomplished nothing, and being compelled, 
perhaps, to give Tyrone liberal terms, returned, as is 
well known, to the queen's anger and shortly after 
death on the scaffold. From the great power which 
Tyrone attained, slowly his fortunes waned, but his 
resistance did not come to an end till the very end 
of Elizabeth's life. Complete collapse of Irish re- 
sistance came with the flight of the Irish earls in 1607, 
and this indeed marked the end of the old tribal sys- 
tem in Ireland. 

Early in the reign of James I large confiscations 
were made in the north, and the great plantation of 
Ulster laid out. In 1611, six counties, the lands of 
Tyrone and Tyrconnel, were given to English and 
Scottish undertakers, who planted them with colon- 
ists from England and Scotland, especially the bor- 
der country. Many of the natives were driven out; 
many more remained as laborers and tenants. This 
was the most successful of the plantations, and its 
results constitute one of the most difficult of the pres- 
ent day problems of Ireland. By 1620 the provinces 



74 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of Ulster, Minister, and Leinster had largely been 
laid out in plantations. There was even a proposal 
to extend the system to Connaught. 

With respect to these plantations, it should be 
remembered that they were not isolated phenomena 
of this time, for there were plantations in America 
and the West Indies, and in each case the purpose 
was the same, the extension of the trade of England, 
and the settling of some of her people in dominions 
over the sea. In America, where lands were vacant 
or held by savages in scanty numbers, the results are 
the magnificent commonwealths of the western world. 
But in Ireland, where the intention was also to con- 
quer the country completely by extending England 
into Ireland, the operation was incredibly heartless 
and cruel. There was no thought of the rights of the 
Irish people. The Romans had once done such 
things, and there are events not very different in the 
history of ancient and medieval times. In Ireland 
plantation succeeded for the most part only enough 
to cause misery to the natives. Its immediate results 
were massacre, suffering, and ruin, desperate resist- 
ance, and vengeful memories that sometimes seem not 
destined to die. Englishmen nowadays, as many of 
them for a long while past, repent this, and sorrow 
that such things once were done. 

The beginning of the Stuart period was marked by 
some very important changes. In 1604 and the years 
following English law was introduced into northern 
Ireland, then extended over the country. Sheriffs 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 75 

and judges were appointed, and the Celtic inhabitants 
for the first time put under the protection of the gov- 
ernment. This had been sought long before by some 
of the natives, and it would have been well for them 
if they had been able to get it. Now it came when 
the land was being taken away from them, and, indeed, 
its sudden application to the tenure of land worked 
hardship to many of the members of the septs, whose 
rights were destroyed in favor of those who possessed 
the land when the decree went into effect. Further- 
more, in the following years, under the new law, all 
sorts of chicanery and oppression were used to despoil 
the natives of still more of their landed possessions. 
In 1605 tanistry and gavelkind were abolished, and 
inheritance made subject to the English law. 

This was a period of great changes and revolution 
in England, in the course of which the fortunes of 
Ireland were profoundly affected for the worse. Im- 
mense alteration of circumstances had brought about 
a conflict between parliamentary power and royal 
prerogative under divine right. Once the king's 
power had been almost supreme in the state; it was 
yet supreme in outlying dominions, the colonies and 
the scattered islands, so far as he could enforce it; 
but in England the greatness of parliament was rising 
as rival and superior. 

The struggle began under James I, and grew more 
bitter in the time of his son. Then a great minister 
of the crown, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, 
attempted to make Ireland completely subservient to 



76 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the king, and there build up forces which could im- 
pose the royal will upon England and Scotland. He 
did his work in Ireland in the midst of the confusion 
which followed the taking of the land. In 1633 he 
came as lord deputy, and during six years applied his 
policy of "thorough" or carrying things through, with 
immense ability and force. He gave strong rule and 
good order and some increase of prosperity compared 
with what he found, at the same time that he developed 
a well disciplined army for the use of the king. In 
all that he did he brooked no resistance. He was 
just preparing to confiscate lands in Connaught and 
plant English colonists there, when troubles in Eng- 
land called him back. There he had to face the Com- 
mons of the Long Parliament. They brought him 
to his death for high treason, in planning to overawe 
England with Irish soldiers. 

Almost at the moment when the contest began be- 
tween Charles I and this parliament, there was a great 
rising of the Irish in Ulster. It was the result of 
general misery among the Irish, the system of planta- 
tion, the taking of lands through legal devices, and the 
proposed spoliation of Connaught. The movement 
spread over the island until all but Dublin was lost. 
Excesses were committed by the vengeful peasants 
in massacre and destruction, and the fearful rumors 
which reached England, purposely much exaggerated 
in passing, aroused cries for vengeance and more con- 
fiscation. An army must be sent over, but for some 
years nothing was done, for neither king nor parlia- 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 77 

ment would trust the other with control of the forces, 
and presently came civil war and revolution and death 
of the king. In 1649 a republic was established, 
largely founded upon the military genius of Crom- 
well, and in that year revenge and conquest were un- 
dertaken. In Ireland Cromwell worked with as ter- 
rible effect as in England. He was a mighty man, 
a sword of God, stern in religious fervor, fanatic in 
the cause he deemed just. His rejDutation in the two 
islands is very different. In England after a great 
while he was seen as the defender of parliamentary 
and constitutional liberties, the great champion of 
the free governments of the English-speaking world. 
In Ireland he is hated to this day, and partly that 
hatred is deserved, for there he bore himself some- 
what in the manner that we abhorred so much in mod- 
ern Prussian commanders. Drogheda he took by 
storm, and put the garrison to the sword in cold blood. 
It srhould be said that garrisons then, refusing to sur- 
render, as the men of Drogheda did, were slaughtered 
when they had been overcome; nevertheless now this 
act seems a stain on the great man's career. Then 
he conquered all the eastern part of the island, after 
which, leaving his lieutenants to complete the work, 
he went away to greater exploits in north England 
and Scotland. 

By 1652 the work was done in Ireland, and done 
so terribly that a third of the inhabitants had per- 
ished, by the sword, by pestilence, and by famine. 
What followed was arranged by parliament, though 



78 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

because it was approved by the general and made pos- 
sible by his victories, it is known as the "Cromwellian 
Settlement." Henry VIII had attempted to extend 
English control in Ireland by conciliation or coercion 
of the chiefs; Elizabeth and the Stuarts had substi- 
tuted force and colonization; their system now was 
extended and made yet more thorough. Large parts 
of Ulster, Leinster, and Minister had already been 
taken from the natives for the plantations established ; 
parliament now confiscated practically all of the is- 
land excepting Connaught and County Clare, the 
most worthless portions. Into them the Irish own- 
ers were pressed, whether they were native Celts or 
earlier colonists from Britain. The laborers and arti- 
sans were not included in the deportation. The lands 
thus taken in the three provinces were given to Eng- 
lish soldiers and supporters in the Irish war. It was 
not only conquest but nearly entire confiscation. 

So the process of spoliation was practically com- 
plete. From the time of Henry II, when the taking 
of the land had been begun by adventurers abetted by 
the crown, to the time of Charles II, when the work of 
the Cromwellian Settlement was sealed, nearly all of 
Ireland had changed hands several times through for- 
feiture and confiscation. In England and in other 
countries also during the Middle Ages, as the result 
of rebellion and revolution, the lands often changed 
hands; but then they passed from one lord to an- 
other, usually of the same race, religion, and speech. 
In Ireland the land had been almost entirely taken 



CONQUEST OF THE LAND 79 

away from the native proprietors, or from the tribes, 
in so far as common holding still persisted, and given 
to alien proprietors, while the mass of the people had 
been exterminated, or driven away, or else left upon 
the lands of their ancestors in lowly and servile de- 
pendence. This must always be remembered in con- 
nection with the later lawlessness of the Irish and the 
bitterness of the land wars which have sometimes dis- 
quieted the island. Deeply rooted in the native mind 
were the feeling that the rightful owners had once 
been supplanted by alien masters, and the instinct, 
based upon old tribal law, that an occupier ought not 
to be evicted. 

With the Restoration and Charles II much of 
Cromwell's work was undone in England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, but Charles was unable to restore all the 
property which his supporters had lost in England, 
and in Ireland he obtained for them almost nothing. 
In the next generation the struggle between parlia- 
ment and crown for supremacy was continued until 
the Revolution of 1688. Before the crisis of the 
struggle James II sought to win the Irish to his sup- 
port, and was aided in this by yearning on the part of 
proprietors dispossessed to recover the lands taken 
from them. When James fled from England, and 
Ireland supported him against his enemies, an Irish 
parliament assembled in 1689, which made sweeping 
changes, and taking, as it must have seemed to the 
members, righteous vengeance upon the oppressors, 
restored all the property which had been forfeited 



80 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

in consequence of the rebellion of 1641. But the bat- 
tle of the Boyne and the loss of Limerick ruined the 
hopes of James and the Irish, and all this was un- 
done. Again the victory of the English was marked 
by confiscation. The work of the Irish parliament 
was of course undone, and in addition, more than a 
million acres belonging to over a thousand proprietors 
was forfeited. About a fourth of this was restored, 
but the remainder was distributed anew, largely to 
the foreign supporters of William of Orange. 

So, the period in English history which is the time 
of the Glorious Revolution, is the time when Irish 
hopes came to an end for ages. The Irish had sur- 
vived the wars of extermination of Elizabeth and 
Cromwell, but they remained now an enfeebled race. 
Of those who were left, some tilled the soil of their 
fathers little better than serfs, others had taken refuge 
in the wild and forbidding parts of the west. Four- 
fifths of the land had been confiscated ; and two-thirds 
of all the good land was actually in possession of alien 
owners. 



CHAPTER V 

THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 

That the British Protestants and Church have three- 
fourths of all the lands ; five-sixths of all the housing ; nine- 
tenths of all the housing in walled towns and places of 
strength, two-thirds of the foreign trade. That 6 of 8 of 
all the Irish live in a brutish, nasty condition, as in cabins, 
with neither chimney, door, stairs, nor window ; feed chiefly 
upon milk and potatoes, whereby their spirits are not dis- 
posed for war. 

Sir William Petty, The Political Anatomy of Ire- 
land (1672), chapter V, section 1. 

So sleeps the pride of former days, 

So glory's thrill is o'er 
And hearts, that once beat high for praise, 

Now feel that pulse no more. 

Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes, 

The only throb she gives, 
Is when some heart indignant breaks, 

To show that still she lives. 

Moore : "The Harp That Once Through Tara's 

H«alls," Irish Melodies. 

THE story to be related in this chapter has often 
been told, and it will often be retold in the fu- 
ture: an old tale of selfish rule and pride of dominion, 
and of misery deep and unending. The condition of 
the Irish people in the eighteenth century was prob- 

81 



82 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ably the most wretched in Europe: or if there was, 
indeed, as lowly degradation in parts of the central 
and eastern lands, yet certainly in Ireland it was very 
far worse than the condition of the inhabitants of 
countries nearby, Scotland, England, the Nether- 
lands, Spain, and France of the old regime. And be- 
cause bad as it was, it was not so intolerable and crush- 
ing but that the victims survived and continued a 
heart-breaking struggle, they have been able in the 
course of time to take terrible vengeance; for they 
have handed down to their children a bitterness and 
condemnation which has been spread all over the 
world. 

Ireland, like other countries at this time, was pre- 
dominantly agricultural and pastoral. From the 
Irish most of the land had been taken. There were 
still many native proprietors in the barren Connaught 
hills, who in the midst of their lonely moors dreamed 
of the days when their fathers had lived on the better 
lands of the east. Those lands were now mostly held 
by proprietors or settlers introduced from Britain 
when the plantations were made or the wars had been 
finished. Among them were sturdy small holders, 
but there had long been a tendency here as across the 
Channel towards consolidation into great estates, and 
now much of Ireland was in the hands of country 
gentlemen and large owners. They were Protestant 
for the most part, and generally alien in race. Upon 
their estates lived most of the Irish peasantry. Over 
them the landlords had, because of conditions to be 



THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 83 

explained, not, perhaps, the power of a Prussian 
junker or a Hungarian noble, but powers none the 
less of dangerous greatness. Chesterfield, lord lieu- 
tenant about the middle of the eighteenth century, 
declared that the poor people of Ireland were worse 
used than negroes. "The landlord of an Irish estate 
inhabited by Roman Catholics," wrote Arthur Young 
later on, "is a sort of despot, who yields obedience in 
whatever concerns the poor to no law but that of his 
will. A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an 
order which a servant, labourer, or cotter dares to 
refuse to execute." If any one complained he would 
be horsewhipped, and no justice of the peace would 
dare issue a summons in his behalf. 1 He does speak 
of the kindly relations which existed between many 
proprietors and their tenants, just as many favorable 
instances have been cited in the slave-holding South 
before the Civil War; but there were several condi- 
tions which conspired to make the situation very bad. 
English policy and conditions in Ireland made the 
great men a race of superiors dealing with inferiors 
far beneath them. The Anglo-Irish gentry were im- 
provident and fond of display, and, emulating more 
and more their wealthier rivals in England, had to get 
from their tenants as much revenue as they possibly 
could. Worst of all was the evil of absenteeism. 
From much earlier times alien lords of Irish estates 
had gone to England to live on their rents. The evil 
was noticed in the fourteenth century, laws were 

i Quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook (London, 1912), p. 126. 



84 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

passed to compel residence on pain of forfeiture, and 
once Henry VIII made a seizure of lands held in 
this way. In 1729 a writer estimated that £627,000 
a year was remitted on account of landlords who lived 
abroad, and in the long list which he gave he thought 
many names were wanting. The absentees were not 
afraid of their tenants, for they lived far away from 
them ; and they had little desire for their welfare, be- 
cause they were almost ignorant of their existence. 
They had with them neither community of interest nor 
sjnmpathy of race. 

The condition of the peasantry was miserable. 
Almost their only means of getting a living was work- 
ing on the land, and this could be done only on small 
holdings obtained from some landlord usually for 
high rent. As population increased and competition 
was keener for land, the dues became higher and rents 
became rackrents. There was no incentive to indus- 
try and better working, for if the tenant improved 
the land, something that the landlord himself was 
seldom willing to do, the improvements belonged to 
the landlord, who usually then raised the rent because 
of the value increased by the improvement ; and if the 
tenant removed he got nothing for what he had done. 
Thus these people lived on, lowly and miserable, 
never far from starvation. In 1729 and 1741 there 
were famines widespread and appalling. 

Nor were other aspects of their life better than 
this economic depression. Irishmen were oppressed 
with what now seems intolerable civil and religious 



THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 85 

discrimination, but which was unfortunately charac- 
teristic of that age in England and almost all Europe. 
When in 1691 the Irish army had surrendered to 
William's lieutenants, it was stipulated that Roman 
Catholics should enjoy such exercise of their religion 
as was consistent with the law, or as they had en- 
joyed in the time of Charles II. After the surrender 
faith was broken, and the English parliament took 
measures as repressive as those undertaken by Cath- 
olic authorities in Bohemia and in Poland in the days 
of the Counter-reformation. It was provided that 
no person should sit in the Irish parliament nor hold 
any office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, nor practice 
law or medicine, until he had taken the oaths of al- 
legiance and supremacy, and declared against tran- 
substantiation, thus debarring Catholics from politi- 
cal and professional life. Papists must not possess 
arms, nor horses above the value of five pounds, and 
it was lawful any time to seize the horse of a papist 
upon paying him money to that value. Penalties 
were ordained for Roman Catholics who undertook 
to teach school publicly or in private houses, except- 
ing the children of the family. A Catholic who went 
beyond sea, or sent any one else, to be trained in pop- 
ery lost all civil rights. It was not long before Ro- 
man Catholic prelates and regular clergy were ban- 
ished from Ireland, and while secular priests were 
allowed to remain, none were to be admitted from 
abroad, the intention being that presently the Cath- 
olic clergy should die out, since there were left no 



86 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

bishops for new ordination. Thus it was proposed to 
take from the great mass of the Irish people their spir- 
itual directors, and destroy Irish and Catholic educa- 
tion. It is true that these and other unhappy laws 
were not rigidly enforced, and ignorant but devoted 
priests continued to live among the peasants, helping 
them to carry on something of the old tradition until 
happier days ; but the wretched people were compelled 
to pay tithes for the support of the ministers of the 
established Protestant church, with whom they would 
have naught to do, and give up the Irish church 
buildings for a handful of Protestant worshippers, 
while they followed their own priests out into the open 
fields. There were many other discriminations. 
Catholic parents must provide for Protestant chil- 
dren ; no land once held by a Protestant could ever be 
possessed by a papist ; among Catholic children an es- 
tate should be equally divided, but if the eldest son 
became a Protestant within a year, he was the heir at 
law. Catholics were not only debarred from office; 
they were not permitted to vote in elections. Had 
these laws been enforced to the uttermost, it may be, 
as some think, that Irish Catholicism and national 
spirit would have been destroyed. But actually the 
persecution in Ireland was far less than that which 
destroyed Protestantism in Bohemia and Spain. Ap- 
parently the minority in power, to whom many of 
these regulations were owing, did not so much wish 
the majority to conform to their religion as to keep 
them in hopeless subjection. "One of the great cen- 



THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 87 

tral facts of Irish history is that the colonists never 
wished the Catholics to become Protestants," says a 
learned authority. Nevertheless, he adds, for a hun- 
dred years, "the great majority of the inhabitants had 
no legal existence, and, like the helots and slaves in 
ancient and modern states, did not count as part of 
the commonwealth. The colonists had all the land, 
all the places of honour and emolument, and prac- 
tically unrestricted liberty to do with their helots 
whatever they pleased." 2 

So, having no part in the government of the land 
where they lived, debarred from office, tried in the 
courts of aliens by a law not the law of their fathers, 
despised, treated with contumely, having no redress, 
without chance to make a living except by lowly 
drudgery on confiscated lands, the best Irishmen 
fled from this island of sorrow. In the seventeenth 
century they had gone to Spain for help, but after 
the subjugation by William they went into the serv- 
ice of France, and it is estimated, doubtless with ex- 
aggeration, that in the period 1691 to 1745, 450,000 
soldiers died in the service of that country. Great 
numbers of them also went to the new promised lands 
of America, some as slaves and indentured servants, 
others to seek fortune in the west, thus beginning 
that Celtic emigration to America which, more than 
a century later, was to increase so greatly as to be 
one of the dominant factors in the history of the 

2W. K. Sullivan, in Two Centuries of Irish History, 1691-1870 (Lon- 
don, 1907), pp. 28, 29, 36. 



88 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

United States. For a great while Ireland's best went 
abroad: in the eighteenth century to France; in the 
nineteenth they went to America. 

Very different was the position of the colonists. 
Under the power of England, the English and Scot- 
tish immigrants lorded it over the natives, a part of 
them, who were members of the established church, 
holding the offices, electing the parliament at Dublin, 
and subsisting upon the revenues of the land, pro- 
duced largely by the native peasants. But the vicious 
system which protected the colonists also took ven- 
geance upon them. At one end of the scale the Prot- 
estant minority in Ireland tyrannized over the Celtic 
majority, but at the other the English aristocracy 
and commercial classes held the Irish colonists in the 
hollow of their hands, and between these extremes the 
Episcopalians in Ireland, one-third of the Protestants 
there and one-eleventh of the whole population, had 
a monopoly of offices and privileges and were able to 
discriminate against the far more numerous body 
of Protestant dissenters. Presbyterians and others 
were gradually cleared from magistracies and office, 
and under the Act of Uniformity were always liable 
to prosecution. It will be seen that as the colonists 
lived by the suppression of the native Irish, so they, 
the minority of the population of the island, were held 
down and often despised by a small part of their own 
number, who were members of the established church, 
for whom most of the offices and rewards of state were 
reserved, while even this smaller minority, at the very 



THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 89 

top though it was in Ireland, founded its power alto- 
gether upon support from England, and therefore 
had to submit without complaint to whatever Eng- 
land might choose to impose. 

The government of Ireland was carried on by a 
lord lieutenant or, in his absence, by lords justices, in 
the name of the king, but actually during all the period 
1691-1782 under the auspices of the parliament at 
London. The lord lieutenant was one of the small 
group of powerful officials who made up the English 
cabinet during this period, and who were taking away 
the king's power. In Ireland he was supported by 
the armed forces of England, and he, and the other 
officials of Dublin Castle sent over from England, 
were seldom controlled by any force in Ireland, but 
always by the English ministry and the parliament of 
England. Often the lord lieutenant spent most of 
his time in England, coming to Ireland only when 
parliament was held there, leaving things meanwhile 
to the lords justices, and especially to one of them 
who managed things in the English interests by deal- 
ing with the "undertakers" or great magnates, who 
controlled or owned the greater part of Irish parlia- 
mentary representation. The chief business of this 
manager was to see that money was appropriated by 
the Irish Houses, to prevent any tendency towards in- 
dependence from England, to forbid anything preju- 
dicial to English interests or trade, and prevent the 
further growth of the Roman Catholic religion. The 
most successful of them was Archbishop Boulter, who 



90 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

was practically the ruler of Ireland from 1724 to 
1742. His principal maxim was that the most im- 
portant offices were to be filled with English ap- 
pointees. Generally speaking, the idea was that 
England should control the Protestants and the Prot- 
estants the Catholics in the island. 

The parliament was a shadow. It represented only 
the Protestant minority, and even then it had little 
power. Poynings' Act had long ago subordinated it 
completely to the English privy council, and in 1719 
the British parliament asserted its own power to make 
statutes binding on the Irish people. While Ireland 
was thus under the control of an English parliament 
acting over a subordinate Irish parliament, English 
ministers did what they pleased. Pensioners, mis- 
tresses of Hanoverian kings, politicians who must be 
rewarded, and others, were quartered on the scanty 
Irish revenues until the pensions amounted to =£89,- 
000. When one thinks of the wretchedness of most 
of the people from whom after all the revenues were 
drawn, there comes to mind once more recollection 
of that French lady of the eighteenth century who had 
a pension upon the fund for the purchase of the galley- 
slaves' bread. The parliament at Dublin could do 
little but persecute the natives and dissenters, and sel- 
dom was able to protect any class in Ireland from 
British domination. In 1698 William Molyneux, a 
member, published his famous pamphlet, in which he 
affirmed the legislative independence of the Irish par- 
liament, saying that taxation without consent was 



THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 91 

little better than robbery, and declaring that the free 
people of England ought to view it with abhorrence. 3 
Nothing was accomplished by his writing. And the 
character of this Irish parliament was contemptible. 
There was abominable corruption and shameless job- 
bery and pilfering of public funds. It was indeed an 
age when corruption was so common in British parlia- 
mentary life that statesmen found themselves unable 
to do without it. But the testimony of Swift and 
Arthur Young and some others seems to show that 
the Irish assembly was as dishonest and base as lack- 
ing in power and dignity, so that afterwards there 
were not wanting some who regarded the Act of 
Union as a blessing, because it relieved them of this 
sham parliament at Dublin. 

In the eighteenth century ideas of liberty and 
equality were not well developed. In the middle of 
the seventeenth century they had been grandly con- 
ceived and stated by some of the English revolution- 
aries, but they were not destined to spread until they 
had been better worked out in America and finely 
formulated by the enlightened intellect of France. 
So during all this period of the rule of Ireland by 
the British parliament, that body which had so nobly 
asserted its own liberties maintained in accord with 
the temper of the time a tyranny in the neighboring 
island. Not only were Celtic Catholics kept inferior 
to Protestant colonists, but Englishmen in Ireland 

3 The Case of Ireland's being Bound by Acts of Parliament of England 
Stated (1698). 



92 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

were kept inferior to their countrymen in England. 
This was shown particularly in the economic dis- 
crimination which completely crushed the industry 
and commerce of Ireland. From the time of Eliza- 
beth the commercial bodies of England waged re- 
lentless war on the business and trade of Ireland. In 
the sixteenth century Irish beeves were sold in the 
English market, but this was declared a nuisance and 
forbidden by law. Then salted provisions were sent 
over ; this was likewise stopped, and prohibitive duties 
kept leather and hides out of England. When later 
the sheep industry flourished in Ireland, the importing 
of Irish wool into England was hindered. It must 
be remembered that at this time usually such things 
were done by one country with respect to another, 
but it was especially hard in the case of Ireland, which 
was in these years being forcibly drawn closer to 
England. In the seventeenth century the Irish tried 
to manufacture the wool which they raised, many Eng- 
lish, Scottish, and foreign manufacturers came over 
to work it, and a thriving industry was established; 
but in 1699 the export from Ireland of manufactured 
woolens was entirely forbidden. One result was that 
some 20,000 Scotch-Irishmen left Ulster for Amer- 
ica, and at the time of the Revolutionary War Eng- 
land had no bitterer foes than their descendants. 
The weaving of silk also had scarce been begun before 
it was ruined. Only the linen industry, established 
in Ulster with its favorable climate and carried on by 



THE NADIR OF SUBJECTION 93 

Huguenot refugees, was permitted, and even this be- 
got jealous dislike. 

With industry deliberately crushed out, commerce 
fared little better. Ireland has numerous harbors 
opening to the west, which had once favored com- 
merce with Gaul and Spain, and which in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries seemed to give great 
advantage for trade with America. About 1680 
Irishmen competed successfully with Englishmen in 
European ports and the French West Indies; but as 
the result of a long series of English Navigation Acts 
this was brought to an end, until there was left to 
Ireland nothing but opportunity for some trade with 
England and restricted trade with the English col- 
onies. "The conveniency of ports and harbours which 
nature bestowed so liberally upon this kingdom is of 
no more use to us than to a man shut up in a dungeon," 
said Swift. 4 

These things were done in a time very different 
from ours. In the eighteenth century there was a 
great deal of bigotry, cruelty, selfishness, and despotic 
rule unenlightened or dull, and it must be said that 
at this time many of the people all over Europe lived 
in lowly condition and often misery too great for 
expression. There was in England and Scotland in 
those days much privilege of class, with much eco- 
nomic oppression, and the lower classes of the people 
there had not yet come to the days when they could 

4 Quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 223. 



94 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

make themselves heard. They too had wrongs for 
redress, and they had to wait for the nineteenth and 
twentieth centuries to get that redress. And on the 
other hand it must be remembered that the picture 
was not all and universally dark. There were some 
just landlords, there were some happy peasants, there 
was some prosperity and joypf living, and all through 
this period there was some progress which can still 
be discerned. Nevertheless, when all allowance is 
made, the condition of the Irish people was inferior, 
miserable, and debased; Ireland was being treated by 
England as a conquered province, an inferior colony, 
a subordinate domain; and Ireland in the eighteenth 
century was administered by England with much of 
the brutal and obstinate tyranny that our free peo- 
ples feared from a Prussia triumphant. It is true, 
all colonies then were held subject to the will of the 
controlling country, and their inhabitants debarred 
from many privileges and rights which they longed 
much to have; and Ireland, if not a colony, was con- 
sidered an outlying dominion. In course of time 
Spain lost her colonies in South America partly be- 
cause of this, and England also some of the best of 
hers. It was the particular misfortune of Ireland 
that she was in such peculiar position that the worst 
wrongs of old colonial administration fell upon her, 
while she was so near at hand that she never could 
break away. 



CHAPTER VI 

grattan's parliament 

The subject, as a subject, is as free in Ireland as he is in 
England. As a member of the Empire, an Irishman has 
every privilege of a natural-born Englishman, in every oc- 
cupation, and in every branch of commerce. 

Edmund Burke to the Rev. Dr. Hussey, May 18, 1795. 

ABOUT 1780 there came in the history of Great 
Britain one of those epochs when it seems that 
the doom of a people and empire approaches, when 
fortune wanes and friends stay aloof, when enemies 
grow bold, and those who once crouched are defiant 
and bitter. Woe to a nation if then there be wrongs 
not yet righted, or things to be done left undone. 
Such a time found Ireland at the end of a long period 
of abject and servile depression, longing for deliv- 
erance, rejoicing at any calamity to the oppressor, 
resolved to extract from that calamity the uttermost 
to its profit. In 1914 a greater danger appeared, a 
more terrible doom was threatened, and then, Eng- 
land who had righted most of the wrong, and largely 
atoned, found that part of the Irish people still re- 
joiced in the evil day, wishing well to the German, 
and forgetting benefits new thought only of ancient 
wrongs or a future made in their dreams. 

In 1781 England, militant and triumphant a short 

95 



96 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

while before, was at bay, with Europe hostile or fight- 
ing against her, and at the point of losing the best 
of her colonial dominions. Against a world in arms 
Englishmen and Scotchmen were fighting a hopeless 
fight. The Americans, who had rebelled against the 
old colonial system, had not been subdued, Saratoga 
and Yorktown had been lost, and supported now by 
France and by Spain, the colonists were not to be 
conquered. Sweet was the revenge of France and 
Spain, so hardly defeated a few years before. Eng- 
lishmen and their enemies might well think that the 
glories of Britain had set, that the future stretched 
darkly before them. 

"England's necessity is Ireland's opportunity," 
has often been uttered by Irishmen. So it was now. 
After the Irish army had surrendered at Limerick 
and gone into the service of France, for almost a hun- 
dred years Ireland was prostrate, and however great 
the wrongs and indignities given her, there had never 
been chance of successful resistance. Now at last 
opportunity had come. The troops which had over- 
awed Ireland were withdrawn for distant service. 
Englishmen were struggling against odds in America, 
in India, in the West Indies, fighting against Hol- 
land and France and Spain. Sometimes they lost 
command of the sea. They could no longer be de- 
fiant or lordly. Bodies of Irish Protestant troops 
were organized to defend Ireland from danger, and 
loyal though they were against England's foes, they 
commanded respect. For the first time in genera- 



GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 97 

tions Great Britain must yield to Ireland's desires. 
In such a time there are always additional factors. 
The resistance of the American colonists awakened 
something in the Irish heart. Taxes were increased 
at the very time when the colonial market was closed, 
and general discontent arose in the island. Most im- 
portant of all, there now came to strength what had 
been growing slow and in silence for a generation or 
more, a feeling of Irish nationality — an ancient thing 
which had often striven to dominate the country in 
days of old, but always had been thwarted by tribal 
disorganization or the undoing by the invader or op- 
pressor. During the eighteenth century England had 
ruled easily by basing her power upon force and the 
religious division in the country, much as Austria 
dealt with the Jugo-Slavs in our time; but now there 
was ever more the feeling that Protestants in Ireland 
never could get what they needed with the Catholic 
majority enslaved. The most conspicuous leader in 
this development of a united Irish nationality was 
Henry Grattan, who entered the Irish House of Com- 
mons in 1775. He moved men by his fervid patriot- 
ism and evident honesty of purpose, and by a splendid 
eloquence which Lecky thinks was the finest heard 
among English-speaking peoples since the time of the 
elder Pitt. Grattan desired to end the feuds between 
the colonists and the natives and make them a united 
Irish nation. Both England and the colonists strove 
now to win the native Irish, but they threw in their 
lot with their colonial fellow countrymen, and a united 



98 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

nation seemed made. Irishmen were happier in 1782 
than in 1914, when north Ireland would have civil war 
rather than Home Rule with the rest of the island. 
So, England began to heed the protests of the Irish 
political leaders. Some of the restrictions on trade 
were soon removed; Irish Protestant dissenters were 
freed from taking the sacramental test as a condition 
of holding office, something which had often been 
evaded in England and Ireland, but which did debar 
people of scrupulous conscience, and continued to de- 
bar them in England for a half century longer; and 
after a while concessions were made to the Catholics. 
In 1779 there were about 40,000 volunteers in 
arms, commanded by the Irish aristocracy. There 
were bold words and great demonstrations. In 1780 
Grattan moved that the king and the Irish parlia- 
ment were the only power competent to make laws 
for Ireland. By the beginning of 1782 the war had 
been finally lost in America, Lord North's ministry 
fell, and in May of that year the new ministry re- 
moved the restrictions once put on the Irish parlia- 
ment. Early in 1783 a law was passed which declared 
that forever thereafter the Irish people should be 
bound only by laws passed by the king and the parlia- 
ment of Ireland. "Ireland is a nation," cried Grat- 
tan. "Esto perpetua." * This is the great event to 
which Irishmen of later generations fondly looked 
back. Until recently it was something like this ar- 
rangement that most of them wanted restored. 

i Sullivan, p. 91. 



GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 99 

At first England's action seemed to have produced 
all the good effects which advocates recently predicted 
for Home Rule. A great wave of emotion swept old 
hostility away. Grattan himself said that next to the 
liberty of the country he desired above all things "not 
to accustom the Irish mind to an alien or suspicious 
habit with regard to Great Britain." 2 The first thing 
which the independent Irish parliament did was to 
vote 20,000 sailors for the British navy. On the other 
hand, some of the best Englishmen wished Ireland 
now to be regulated by Irish notions in Irish interests, 
feeling that the more this was so the more would she 
really be bound to Great Britain. 

Some excellent work was accomplished. Most of 
the penal code against Roman Catholics was swept 
away, and they were admitted to the franchise, though 
not allowed to have seats in the parliament. Freedom 
of trade had been secured, and Irish commerce began 
to flourish, industry to revive, and the fisheries to at- 
tain great prosperity. In the days of woe soon to 
come men looked upon this era as a fortunate age ; but 
it has been said that the prosperity which arose was 
after all fictitious and not shared by the mass of the 
people, since it was due mostly to temporary condi- 
tions, redounding to the benefit of a few. During all 
this period of legislative independence England was 
at war or preparing for war; she needed great sup- 
plies for her armies and fleets, which were easily 

2 W. E. H. Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (London, 
1903), i. 104. 



100 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

produced in Ireland, predominantly agricultural, and 
obtained in Irish ports. Hence there was a war pros- 
perity and great war profits, like those which recently 
enriched certain classes in Norway and the United 
States. However this be, and there is difference of 
opinion, there can be little doubt that Ireland in the 
period 1782-1800 was better off than before, and for 
some time thereafter, if not because she was gov- 
erned by a parliament of her own, at least because she 
was no longer under the civil and commercial restric- 
tions which characterized the worst years of English 
rule. 

Still there was much which Ireland had not yet ob- 
tained, and it was very difficult to succeed with the 
evils existing. In Great Britain then the ministry, 
or executive, was not responsible to the people, but 
it was largely dependent upon parliament, little as 
that parliament represented the people. For Ireland 
there was no executive responsible to the Irish par- 
liament, for the lord lieutenant and his chief secre- 
tary were appointed, as is the case yet, by the British 
government, so that no cabinet fell when an Irish 
majority was wanting, and really important executive 
measures depended upon the British cabinet working 
in secret at a distance. Furthermore, the Irish parlia- 
ment continued to be the corrupt and unrepresenta- 
tive body which long it had been. In Great Britain 
parliament, based largely upon small corporations, 
and pocket and rotten boroughs, and controlled so 
easily by a few wealthy and powerful magnates, was 



GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 101 

greatly in need of reform; and it should be noted 
that much as English reformers were striving to 
bring about betterment, practically nothing was se- 
cured in Great Britain until 1832, and no funda- 
mental change until more than thirty years later. 
Ireland at this time had likewise the old, corrupt sys- 
tem which existed all through the British Isles. Out 
of 300 members in the Irish House of Commons 216 
sat for boroughs or manors, most of which were easily 
controlled by wealthy magnates or persons connected 
with the government in Dublin Castle; so that the 
Castle could as a rule control the proceedings of the 
House. This control was exercised by the important 
English officials and their Irish connections; and as 
officials are in effect usually controlled by an inner 
group of powerful members, so the Castle was domi- 
nated by a very small body known as the Junto, of 
whom Fitzgibbon, lord chancellor, afterwards Earl of 
Clare, was now the most influential. Thus Ireland 
was easily ruled through its parliament by the English 
government and managed by the powerful members 
of the Junto. 

Forn erly this parliament had represented in some 
manner only the Protestant minority, having no con- 
nection whatever with three-fourths of the people. 
In 1793 Catholics were permitted to vote for mem- 
bers, but they might not represent their fellows by 
sitting in the House. Catholics, who had assisted, 
so far as they were allowed, in obtaining the conces- 
sions just granted by England, now began agitation 



102 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

to be admitted to the government. Some English of- 
ficials favored their cause, and some Protestant cor- 
porations in Ireland supported their petition. The 
viceroy favored their complete emancipation, but 
nothing was done. It would seem that most of the 
Protestants strongly opposed admitting Roman Cath- 
olics to sit in parliament, since Catholics, the great 
majority of the nation, if enfranchised, might soon 
give control of the government to members of their 
own faith. This is one of the reasons why Ulster 
Protestants feared Home Rule in 1914; and it will 
be recalled that objection about numbers was made to 
admitting women to the parliamentary franchise in 
Great Britain. Furthermore, there was nothing more 
dreaded by some of those in power than liberal treat- 
ment of Catholics, by which they might become thor- 
oughly contented and work loyally with the Protes 
tants, so that the Irish people might present a solid 
front to the Irish oligarchy and the British govern- 
ment. 

Troublous times had come after 1789. The French 
Revolution began with grand and generous reforms 
and wild and radical proposals. Its effects were felt 
in western and central Europe, where mighty changes 
soon took place, in far-off America, where youthful 
enthusiasm rose, and in Great Britain and Ireland, 
where the lowly and discontented began to believe 
in some vague way that the time of deliverance was 
come. What distrust and alarm these stirrings caused 



GRATTANS PARLIAMENT 103 

in the minds of the just but conservative everywhere, 
we can understand better now, after the rule of the 
Bolsheviki in Russia. In Ireland there was still dis- 
content enough. Grattan's period had given some 
industrial and commercial prosperity, and a sense of 
freedom and hope for the future, but the condition of 
the mass of the people had not been greatly changed. 
Still they groaned under rackrents, and under greedy 
middlemen and landlords. For them violence might 
bring something better. At first the theories and 
principles of the French radicals affected not the Ro- 
man Catholics but the Presbyterians of Ulster, who 
liked a republic better than monarchy; but presently 
most Catholics were attracted also by hope of relief 
from economic oppression and old discrimination. In 
1791 Wolf Tone, a Dublin barrister, founded the 
Society of United Irishmen, in which he brought to- 
gether Protestants and Catholics to get reform by 
remaking the Irish parliament and getting greater 
freedom from English control. The result was a split 
in the Catholic ranks, between the educated upper 
classes, who would get their relief from England, and 
the more ignorant and radical majority, who would 
force it themselves. 

In 1795, Lord Fitzwilliam, a liberal Whig, was sent 
to Ireland as lord lieutenant. He at once took de- 
cided steps toward reform, and encouraged Grattan 
to introduce a bill to admit Roman Catholics to par- 
liament. But the Junto soon secured his recall; and 



104 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the disappointment and bitterness resulting, and the 
baseness and harsh brutality of some of the reaction- 
ary officials, led straight to rebellion. 

The Irish population, unhappily divided in so many 
ways, now divided again on distinctly religious lines. 
The Catholics, embittered and goaded into violence, 
saw the northern Protestants desert them and found 
the Orange Society. The United Irishmen, forced 
to disband, reappeared with intentions treasonable to 
the British government, and sought for the aid of 
France. Two French expeditions went forth, but 
accomplished nothing, largely because of British com- 
mand of the sea. In 1797, martial law was pro- 
claimed, and the treatment of Catholics was so bar- 
barous that one may say that they seemed to be goaded 
into violent uprising. The general rebellion, which 
broke out in 1798, was generally a failure from the 
first; and after savage violence and more savage re- 
prisals, it was soon completely stamped out. There 
was a reactionary reign of terror in Ireland, as in 
Paris after the Revolution of 1848. Horrible deeds 
of killing and torture followed. These were the days 
when caps filled with burning pitch were put down 
upon the heads of unhappy wretches. "The horror 
of death lay over Ireland ; cruelty and terror raised to 
a frenzy." 3 

Such was the far-famed period of Irish legislative 
independence. So much that was good seemed ac- 
complished that afterwards these years were cherished 

3 Mrs. Green, p. 219. 



GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 105 

by the Irish as a golden age. Yet this time was one 
of much trouble, and at last of entire disaster. The 
failure was owing partly to evil conditions not yet 
done away with, partly to the difficulty of getting all 
classes of Irishmen to work for their country to- 
gether, and partly because the dangerous interna- 
tional situation caused Englishmen to see with dis- 
may any weakening of the ties between Ireland and 
Britain, particularly the increasing tendency of Irish 
extremists to bring about complete separation. Na- 
poleon had conquered half Europe; the conquest of 
the British Isles was one of his principal designs for 
the future. Already the French had twice gone to 
Ireland, and an invasion of England was soon to be 
expected. In this crisis, English statesmen, confront- 
ing division and hostility in Ireland at the same time 
that they were occupied with danger from abroad, re- 
solved to bind Ireland to England more closely than 
ever before; so closely that if possible there might in 
the future be actual union of all the parts of the Brit- 
ish Isles. 



CHAPTER VII 

IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 

I hope I feel as becomes a true Irishman for the dignity and 
independence of my country, and therefore I would elevate 
her to her proper station in the rank of civilised nations. I 
wish to advance her from the degraded post of a mercenary 
province to the proud station of an integral and governing 
member of the greatest empire in the world. 

Speech of John, Earl of Clare, in the House of 
Lords of Ireland, February 10, 1800. 

That Union, so called, as lucus a non lucendo, a union 
from never uniting, which in its first operation gave a death- 
blow to the independence of Ireland, and in its last may be 
the cause of her eternal separation from this country. If it 
must be called a Union, it is the union of the shark with his 
prey ; the spoiler swallows up his victim, and they become one 
and inseparable. Thus has Great Britain swallowed up the 
Parliament, the Constitution, the independence of Ireland. 
Lord Byron in the House of Lords of the United 
Kingdom, April 21, 1812. 

THE union of Great Britain and Ireland followed 
the suppression of the rebellion of 1798. It is 
one of the most important events in the history of the 
Irish people, and the one which has, perhaps, been 
more denounced and obscured by their patriotic 
writers than anything else. So much has been writ- 
ten about it in controversial passion, that now it often 

106 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 107 

seems hopeless to try to arrive at a fair understand- 
ing. 

The history of the principal divisions of the British 
Isles is in large part the record of a gradual assem- 
bling about England in closer union; and generally, 
it may be said, this has been advantageous to all the 
parts. Wales was incorporated into England dur- 
ing the Middle Ages, and formally the work was com- 
pleted in the time of Henry VIII. The conquest 
of Scotland was attempted by Edward I, who con- 
quered Wales, but the Scots developed a stronger 
sense of nationality, before their kinsmen in Ireland, 
and so were able to maintain an independence upon 
which Scotchmen nowadays look back with pride, but 
which actually rendered the Scots and the people of 
northern England far less happy and fortunate than 
would probably have been the case if an honor- 
able union had been established. Certainly some 
hundred years of barbarous border warfare would 
have been avoided, and all the country from Durham 
to Aberdeen blessed with an order and prosperity 
which came very late. In 1603 a union of Scotland 
with England was partly accomplished, when the two 
kingdoms were brought together under James I. 
They were to have the same king, but separate coun- 
cils, parliaments, and governmental organizations. 
A closer union was often desired by the progressive 
people in both countries, but national pride and local 
prejudice made this impossible for another hundred 
years. In 1707, after a bitter struggle, in the course 



108 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of which many patriotic Scots and Englishmen felt 
that the interests of their lands were being ruined and 
betrayed, England and Scotland were joined by an 
act of union in the Kingdom of Great Britain, and 
after a generation had passed in which the irrecon- 
cilable opponents disappeared, most persons saw that 
England and Scotland now conferred upon each 
other great benefits and great prosperity and happi- 
ness. If there was some inequality, the benefits were 
possessed by Scotland. 

To bring about a closer union with Ireland was 
more difficult and less desired by England. Crom- 
well did assemble representatives from Ireland in his 
parliaments, as he brought them also from Scotland, 
but with his death this union came to an end. When 
Scotland and England were at last being united, 
there were not wanting Irishmen who wished that the 
same might be done in respect of their country, and 
the Irish Houses of Parliament sent petitions to Lon- 
don for it in 1703 and 1707. Had England granted 
it as this time, doubtless Ireland with equal laws and 
trading privileges would have gone towards a happier 
future. During the eighteenth century eminent 
writers like Sir William Petty and Adam Smith ad- 
verted to the advantages of such union. 

When the rebellion of 1798 was ended, the younger 
Pitt, who headed the British government then, was 
confronted with problems much greater than those 
concerning Ireland alone. One of the things to be 
noticed by the student of Irish history is the narrow 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 109 

views of a great many of its writers. Recently ad- 
vocates of the immediate granting of Home Rule to 
Ireland, or those who speak so loudly in behalf of 
complete independence for Ireland, have seemed to 
take into consideration nothing but the affairs of Ire- 
land alone, and seemed to care little for the effects 
upon England and the rest of the world. To them it 
has been more important that Ireland immediately get 
what they thought she should have than that the war 
against Germany be won or any of the delicate and 
complicated things which concern the position and re- 
lations of other peoples be taken in mind. So the 
Nationalist and Sinn Fein writers who tell the story 
of the union of Ireland with England, expatiate with 
horror upon the fraud and corruption and violence 
which brought it about, without intelligent study of 
the conditions which prevailed then, and tell the story 
solely with reference to Ireland, recking little, it 
would seem, that then also England was locked in 
struggle with one of the mightiest of her foes, fight- 
ing one of the most difficult struggles which ever she 
waged. Irishmen, justly discontented, were inviting 
Frenchmen to invade their island, as in 1914 some 
others sought assistance from Germans. Then as 
now a hostile Ireland giving base for the enemy's 
flank attack might have been fatal. As in the days of 
Elizabeth, so in the administration of Pitt, it was a 
vital interest of England to make sure of Ireland. 

There were other considerations. Under Grat- 
tan's Parliament the aspirations of many Irishmen 



110 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

had been very fine, and they had struggled manfully 
against fatal and evil conditions of the circumstances 
in which they were placed. It is true also that re- 
actionaries both in England and in Ireland had tried 
to make them fail. The fact was, however, that Ire- 
land under her own parliament had not achieved 
union of the peoples or solution of the problems that 
vexed them. Had there been no international 
dangers, and if the best men of Ireland had had a 
longer time and a fairer chance, perhaps all of these 
difficulties would have been removed in the end. But 
while the ardent and discontented now may describe 
merely the iniquity of wrongs in the past, statesmen 
at the time had to deal with things as they were. 
Pitt viewed the great danger of an Ireland discon- 
tented and not closely held while England was fight- 
ing for her life; he saw the necessity of redressing 
grievances which could not be removed under the cir- 
cumstances existing; he saw the necessity of admit- 
ting the Roman Catholics to a share in the govern- 
ment, and the reluctance of the Protestant minority 
to yield up control. He thought, and other good 
men in Ireland as well as in England thought, that 
these difficulties might best be removed by merging 
Ireland into a greater union with Great Britain, as 
Scotland had formerly been joined with England. 
This he undertook to accomplish. 

It is true that much of the opinion in Ireland was 
strongly against such a union. There was a great 
deal of well-deserved hatred of England; there was 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 111 

strong and increasing consciousness of Irish nation- 
ality, as once there had been in Scotland; and the 
spirit of the French Revolution with its rights of 
man and aspirations of peoples had some effect. 
Furthermore, the existing Irish government, which 
had done very little for Ireland, had much to lose by 
the change. Hence the Union was carried in Ire- 
land largely by intimidation and coercive persuasion ; 
and in the Irish parliament by bribery wholesale and 
open. But it is scarcely true to say, as is often said 
now, that the members of the Irish parliament were 
bribed by Pitt to sell their countrymen's trust. For 
no really representative assembly sold what had been 
entrusted to it by the people. At that time both in 
England and Ireland those who controlled parliamen- 
tary boroughs thought that they owned, and were 
thought to possess, a property to be bought and sold. 
The principle of compensating owners of boroughs 
was recognized in England in 1785 when Pitt pro- 
posed to reform the parliamentary system there. In 
Ireland this was done now, and such compensation, 
together with titles, presents, cajolery, and threats, 
procured for the British authorities a majority in the 
Irish parliament for the Union. It may be that this 
was, as Lecky thought, against the wishes of five- 
sixths of the people of Ireland. But most popular 
writers treat of the matter in terms of legislative con- 
ditions at present. It should be remembered, as 
Lecky also said, that without bribery, pressure, and 
persuasion not only the Union could not have been 



112 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

carried, but no real reform of the Irish parliament, 
which the best Irishmen then earnestly wished for. 

Irishmen may properly regret the taking away 
of their legislative independence, and one may justly 
sympathize with their indignation and regret; but it 
is fair to explain that what was done away with by 
force and corruption was a corrupt and ineffective 
thing; and that if it was done with consideration of 
England's welfare foremost in mind, there were ex- 
cellent reasons for believing that it would produce 
benefits and reforms much needed in Ireland; and 
that far from being an act of brutal tyranny by Great 
Britain, it was considered by some wise men in Ire- 
land as well as in England to be best under the cir- 
cumstances for the interests of all the inhabitants of 
Great Britain and Ireland. 

By the terms of the Act of Union of 1800 the par- 
liaments of Great Britain and Ireland were united, 
32 Irish peers sitting in the House of Lords at West- 
minster and 100 Irish members coming to the House 
of Commons. The United Church of England and 
Ireland was to be a fundamental part of the new 
system. The name of the new state was to be the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
Some one commented upon the fact that a common 
legislature had been formed, but no common name 
had been found, as was easily done for Eng- 
land and Scotland; and Irish writers have seen in 
this the symbol of the unreal arrangement accom- 
plished. Englishmen fondly believed that by this 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 113 

scheme they had settled the most vexatious problem 
which perplexed them ; but in the next hundred years 
there was to be much more violent opposition, with 
constant efforts at last to annul this Union. 

With Ireland subdued and held by armed forces 
conditions were such that there could not be the bitter 
and open resistance to the new government which 
Scottish malcontents so long preserved. Some may 
recall that in 1713 a motion was made in the British 
parliament to dissolve the union between England 
and Scotland; and the Highlands were not won over 
entirely until after the measures following the sup- 
pression of the Rebellion of 1745. But the circum- 
stances and terms of the union of England and Scot- 
land were such that only the operation of time was 
necessary to reconcile the vast majority in both coun- 
tries, and great economic advantages counterbalanced 
the sacrifice of Scottish nationality. Unhappily in 
Ireland a great many of the reforms which were 
needed, and some of the most important things prom- 
ised, were neither attended to nor fulfilled for a long 
time afterward, while circumstances were such that 
there was rather a decline than an increase of pros- 
perity. English statesmen were either stupid or un- 
fortunate, and the passage of years bringing reforms 
slow and by grudging gift after bitterness and ex- 
treme resistance, did not cause England and Ireland 
to come closer together, but made Ireland desire to 
break the tie upon her, and always look back with 
vain regret to the years of legislative independence. 



114 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

The population of Ireland at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century was about 4,500,000. Catholics 
made up, apparently, nearly four-fifths of this num- 
ber. The enfranchising act of 1793 had admitted 
Roman Catholics to vote and allowed them to hold 
lesser offices, but they might not be elected to parlia- 
ment nor hold the higher civil and judicial positions. 
At the time when the Union was being forced through 
some of the Roman Catholics were won over by as- 
surances that when the change was made they would 
obtain state payment for their priests, commutation 
of tithes, and, above all, complete political emancipa- 
tion. Pitt made no formal promise to this effect, 
but seems to have sincerely desired to carry these 
things. It happened, however, that George III was 
obstinately and unyieldingly an enemy to concessions 
to Catholics, and went so far as to declare that he 
would reckon any man his personal enemy who pro- 
posed a measure for Catholic relief. In the midst of 
conflicting circumstances, Pitt yielded for what 
seemed to him the best. This was in 1801. For the 
next decade the giant struggle with Napoleon ab- 
sorbed the attention of Englishmen, and after Water- 
loo came a period of reaction, during which the hopes 
of progressives in England as well as Ireland were 
crushed to the earth. So, nothing was done for Irish 
Catholics for a quarter of a century, and nothing was 
done to win Ireland to closer fellowship and associa- 
tion. 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 115 

Other conditions remained very bad. Worst of all 
was the question of land. Most Englishmen, to do 
them justice, little knew how different was the ar- 
rangement in Ireland from theirs, or how bad it was. 
In England the landlord was a partner, as it were, in 
the agricultural enterprise, investing his capital and 
making improvements, and he was close to the tenant 
through social and customary ties. In Ireland he was 
like the owners of land in London: simply a receiver 
of rent. Irish landlords were not all bad, but the 
system was exceedingly bad. Many of them were 
absentees, and in any case the larger part of the land 
was usually let on long lease to middlemen, who par- 
celled it out in small holdings to peasants at extrava- 
gant rent for a year at a time. Furthermore the 
value of land was rising. The long wars caused the 
price of corn to rise and with it the price of land. 
Hence, as leases fell in, rents were largely raised, 
the lease being sometimes exposed to public 
auction, after which the cottiers had to apply to the 
lessee for a tenement which was let at extortionate 
rent. It may be added that many of these peasants 
were obliged moreover to work for the landlord by 
the terms of their contracts, so that actually their con- 
dition was not very different from that of the medi- 
eval serf. Nor was this all, for they were further 
hampered by vexatious tolls in market and town. 
And finally there were the tithes to be paid to the 
ministers of the Established Church of Ireland. 



116 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

"Tithe, when uncommuted, is the worst of taxes, be- 
cause it is a tax on industry as well as on capital." x 
It was a share of that which the peasant produced, 
and the harder he worked the more he had to pay. 
The great majority of the population, whether 
Catholic or Presbyterian, had to pay this grievous tax 
to support a religion which they detested and which 
did nothing for them. 

They who insist that the period of Grattan's Par- 
liament was one of exceptional prosperity are largely 
correct, for England had already relaxed the com- 
mercial restrictions put upon Ireland; but Home 
Rule advocates and recent Nationalist writers are 
less so when they assert that this prosperity was de- 
stroyed by the making of the Union. Something of 
Ireland's decline may have been due to it, though it 
would be difficult to give definite proof. Cer- 
tainly the decline was not seen for some time, and 
there is good reason for believing that when it did 
come it was due to the operation of far-reaching 
causes which would have been effective whether Ire- 
land had a separate parliament or not. Comparing 
the decade just after the Union with the one just be- 
fore it, there is seen to have been an increase of more 
than fifty per cent in imports and more than twenty- 
three per cent in exports. In the next half century 
the population grew as rapidly as anywhere in 
Europe, from four and a half millions to more than 
eight, nearly doubling itself. Yet it must be remem- 

i J. H. Bridges, in Two Centuries of Irish History, p. 215. 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 117 

bered that while rapidly increasing population in 
America and Germany has denoted increase in power 
and wealth, it has had very different significance in 
southern Italy and Russia. One school of writers 
holds that this doubling of the Irish population in the 
first half of the nineteenth century denotes prosperity 
and progress, another that it signifies extreme im- 
providence and very low standard of living. 

The prosperity of Ireland was actually on the wane, 
from causes that could not, perhaps, be clearly seen 
at the time, but which can be discerned now. Irish 
industry began to flourish again about the time of the 
independent parliament because English restrictions 
were removed; but after all it was the old indus- 
trial system which flourished once more, and pres- 
ently that system was everywhere forced to yield to 
a new one which marked the industrial revolution 
already well started in England. Better means of 
communication, and great mechanical inventions like 
the steam engine and spinning- jenny changed the in- 
dustry of the world. Manufacturing became central- 
ized in certain places; in other places it gradually 
disappeared. This was so with many a district in 
England and Scotland, once well known for things 
made, but which now decayed as the woolen manu- 
facture was gathered to Yorkshire, cotton to Lanca- 
shire, and linens to north Ireland about Belfast. 
Here was a world movement, and it is difficult to be- 
lieve that the form of Irish government could have 
much to do with it. At the end of the eighteenth 






118 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

century, also, Irish agriculture nourished exceed- 
ingly, as it did for some time after the Union was 
accomplished; but this was due to the need for food 
in England during the war, when access to European 
markets was often cut off. After the end of the war 
English agriculture suffered as did Irish agriculture 
in competition with corn from abroad. It may be 
said that the removal of the seat of government from 
Dublin to Westminster did indeed cause a decline in 
the prosperity of the Irish capital city. As in the 
case of Edinburgh, where there had been much gaiety, 
fine building, and luxury, there was now the quietness 
of disuse and decay. 

During this period Irish finances developed in a 
manner unsatisfactory to Irishmen. By the terms of 
the Act of Union, England and Ireland were each 
of them to contribute a fixed proportion of the joint 
public expenditures: Britain was to furnish fifteen 
parts and Ireland two parts of the total revenue, 
probably more than Ireland could properly pay. It 
was further provided that if in the future the public 
debts of the two countries should stand in the same 
proportions, then parliament might impose the same 
rate of taxation in each country and amalgamate the 
British and the Irish exchequers. At first the Irish 
debt was not large, but it was soon evident that 
two-seventeenths of the revenue was more than the 
island could furnish, and the annual deficits had to 
be made good by loans which caused the Irish debt 
rapidly to increase. In 1800 it had been about one-; 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 119 

sixteenth of the British debt, but in 1816 it was be- 
tween one-sixth and one-seventh. Next year the con- 
solidation of the exchequers was effected. The gen- 
eral result of this and of the conditions which pro- 
duced it was that Ireland was burdened with heavier 
taxes, at a time when other circumstances made the 
people less able to pay them. One of the complaints 
constantly made in recent Irish propagandist litera- 
ture is that a poor Ireland has throughout the nine- 
teenth century been drained of money to pay taxes 
to a wealthier Britain. There is much to be said 
on both sides of this difficult question, and appar- 
ently the condition has not existed for some time, 
but Ireland does seem in this to have suffered dis- 
advantages from which a government of her own 
would at least have attempted to save her. 

In the midst of these changing conditions, with 
Ireland silent, subdued and ever drifting toward 
lower depression and economic suffering, other forces 
of discontent were unloosed. At first they were 
scarcely noticed. The rebellion of Robert Emmet 
in 1803 was the pathetic act of a young republican 
visionary, inspired with the hope of rekindling Irish 
nationality. For his immediate failure he paid with 
his life, and like Padraic Pearse, another one great of 
soul and of kindred spirit a hundred years later, he 
died an enthusiast and pure-minded martyr. But 
against the worst oppressions lawlessness has evt r 
broken out in Ireland. When the condition of the 
Irish people has been most hopeless, secret local 



120 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

organizations have always risen up to redress in their 
rude, savage way the wrongs which could not other- 
wise be opposed. In the seventeenth century there 
were the Whiteboys and the Oak and Steel Boys, 
about whom ghastly things are related. In the early 
nineteenth century new ones arose with different 
names. Some deeds committed were atrocious, and 
savage retribution was taken. But it should be said 
that they who declare Irishmen to be naturally with- 
out sense of obedience to law, should remember that 
terrible wrongs, whether in Italy or Russia or the 
southern United States under reconstruction, or in 
Ireland, have always produced secret organizations, 
with violence, intimidation, and disorder, and that 
often these things have in desperate need been the 
last recourse of a people. During this time Ireland 
was held down by armed forces, and ruled under acts 
of coercion. Yet the violence and disorder continued, 
particularly against unfair landlords and collectors 
of tithes, until they gradually became, what they had 
often been before, a source of grave disquietude to 
the British government, and also until they became 
for the first time, perhaps, disquieting to the people of 
England. 

The greatest movement in Ireland at this time 
was the struggle of Roman Catholics for deliverance. 
With Daniel O'Connell's name this movement is for- 
ever associated. He was a Catholic barrister, an 
ardent Irish patriot, eloquent and gay, with great art 
in winning his countrymen to follow him, and with 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 121 

marvellous talents for organization. He took up the 
cause of his fellow Catholics when Pitt had abandoned 
it, and when Fox had accomplished nothing; and he 
began his task when almost everyone else had given 
it up in despair. For a long while the people of 
England, who generally in those days knew little of 
Ireland, or of any other land, scarcely heard of him; 
but he was more and more important as a worker in 
the Catholic cause. 

That cause had made little progress. Some of the 
Irish members in parliament, like Grattan, did what 
they could, and Irish Catholics petitioned for relief; 
but though the matter was several times considered, 
greater things claimed the attention of British states- 
men, and there was an invincible prejudice in states- 
men and people. A Catholic Association had been 
founded in Ireland in 1806 for the purpose of secur- 
ing relief. It was based largely upon the support of 
prosperous Catholics of the middle class, and it peti- 
tioned parliament for relief. It was connected with 
local bodies of Catholics by devices which narrowly 
escaped violating the law. In 1810 a Catholic Com- 
mittee was established, and when this was denounced 
by the government it was replaced by a Catholic 
Board. This was also soon suppressed. It was in 
these bodies that O'Connell first rose to influential 
position. In 1823 the Catholic Association was re- 
vived, largely through the exertions of O'Connell, 
who gave it now an entirely different character, and 
through his genius for organization speedily made it 



122 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

a very formidable weapon. He based it upon the 
great mass of the Catholic population, the lower 
classes, and his agents in accomplishing this work 
were the Irish priests. 

The priests in Ireland have long had a peculiar 
position. At the time of the Reformation, as Lecky 
once said, when every northern nation abandoned the 
old faith, Irishmen retained it, partly, at least, out of 
antipathy to their oppressors; and in the struggle 
which followed it was often the symbol and expres- 
sion of their national spirit, and gave them the 
strongest political feeling which they had. In the 
long period of the abasement of the Irish, their priests 
had been the leaders, their only friends, their only 
guides. And they had suffered much. The penal 
laws had fallen on them with full weight. Often 
they had been hunted through the wild places of the 
country; they had been sheltered and hidden by the 
peasantry whom they sustained. The tie between 
priests and people, then, became wonderous strong, 
"something to which no parallel can be found in other 
countries, Protestant or Catholic, for many cen- 
turies." 2 Better times now had come. The priest 
was not hunted and persecuted as once he had been, 
but he was still the principal friend of the peasantry, 
with such wonderful influence as often to be their 
master. 

Therefore, when O'Connell planned to reach the 
Irish people, he did it through their leaders and guides, 

2 Bridges, p. 240. 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 123 

and it was the sign of his genius for leadership in Ire- 
land that they followed him obediently, and made it 
possible for him to perfect through them an organi- 
zation all through the country. The dues in the Asso- 
ciation were made as low as a penny a week, which was 
to be collected in each parish through the priest. It 
was no long time before the Association was receiv- 
ing a regular income of more than a thousand pounds 
sterling a week, amply sufficient for its support and 
the carrying on of all the propaganda which it under- 
took. Great mass meetings were held at which 
O'Connell displayed unrivalled magnetic power. He 
discountenanced violence : no political change, he said, 
was worth a drop of human blood ; and he controlled 
his followers through the priests in amazing fashion. 
Soon it was seen that a real new power had arisen 
in the state, an imperium in imperio, which consti- 
tuted virtually an informal parliament to take cogni- 
zance of all things which affected the Catholic Irish. 
In 1825 this and all similar organizations were sup- 
pressed, but the resourceful leader at once revived it 
under another form, and displayed great ingenuity 
in keeping just within the bounds of the law. 

The Catholic question now became an acute issue 
in England as well as in Ireland. The majority of 
the English people, Protestant and conservative in 
temper, were opposed to enfranchisement of Catholics 
and letting them share in the government of the state, 
while Tories and reactionaries about court and in the 
House of Lords were able to destroy one bill which 



124 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

passed through the Commons. In Ireland such pas- 
sions were aroused that there was widespread fear 
of civil war, and the fanaticism of Catholics and 
Orangemen was so fanned to a flame that it seemed 
such a conflict might be really a religious war. The 
matter soon came to issue in such way as to show 
the British government that something had to be done : 
in the general election of 1826 there was a great re- 
volt of the Catholic voters from the leadership of 
their landlords, that is to say, against the government 
which supported the landlords. In Ireland, as in 
England, because of an old statute, in the country 
districts or counties the right of voting for mem- 
bers of parliament was vested in the forty-shilling 
freeholders, possessors of freeholds with annual 
value of that amount. In England and in Ireland 
the independent freeholders were few, but in Ireland 
especially they might be created without grant of 
property, and many such freeholders had been made 
from time to time by the landlords on their estates 
as a means for their political control of the district. 
It is difficult for one not acquainted with the gradual 
growth of the franchise to realize some of the ideas 
which once prevailed widely, but which have passed 
away now, leaving small trace of themselves in those 
now existing. At present, dependence of a voter 
upon some patron or master is regarded as excep- 
tional or abhorrent ; but it was the usual thing in rural 
districts long ago, and it still continued as a time- 
honored custom in England and Ireland at the begin- 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 125 

ning of the nineteenth century. "It was received as 
an almost unquestioned axiom of agricultural ethics 
that the tenant must follow in all political matters the 
lead of his landlord." 3 The relation between tenant 
and landlord in this respect was something like that 
of the follower to the chief. Now in Ireland for the 
most part the forty-shilling freeholders were the most 
ignorant and impoverished Catholic farmers. It was 
one of the unfortunate results of the enfranchisement 
act of 1793 that they had been allowed to vote while 
the enlightened Catholic gentry were debarred from 
sitting in parliament. Hitherto these new voters 
had been altogether subservient to their landlords' 
wishes, expressing no political convictions of their 
own; but now O'Connell ruled the clergy, and as al- 
ways the clergy ruled the people. They so wrought 
upon their parishioners that a sudden overturn fol- 
lowed. Sermons were preached that the salvation of 
the voters was at stake; and eloquent leaders stirred 
them to a frenzy. Violence and intimidation were 
employed against the Association's opponents. 
Protestants were forced to vote with the organization 
by threats of assassination and burning of their homes. 
The result of it all was that the Association gained a 
great triumph. And the result also was that some 
English leaders, particularly the Duke of Wellington, 
saw that if civil war was to be averted, the govern- 
ment must yield. The matter was further settled 
by the Clare election in 1828, in which the landlords 

s Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, ii. 75. 



126 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

and their tenants fought a great political combat, 
where again the new movement was victorious. 
O'Connell, though not qualified to sit in parliament, 
was elected in preference to a popular candidate. 

Wellington's influence was now thrown entirely 
into the scale for enfranchisement: thus only, he 
thought, could civil war be prevented. Then the 
king and the peers were forced to yield, and in 1829 
the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed. The 
denial of transubstantiation and the old oaths so of- 
fensive to Roman Catholics were done away with, and 
Catholics upon taking an oath of allegiance might be 
admitted to both Houses of Parliament and to most 
civil, judicial, and political offices; that is, the law 
conceded to Catholics in the United Kingdom full 
political and civil rights, with certain exceptions, 
chief among which were the offices of sovereign, lord 
chancellor, and lord lieutenant of Ireland. On the 
other hand the forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland 
were disfranchised, and the number of the electorate 
diminished by raising the qualification for voting to 
ten pounds; so that afterwards it was said that the 
government took away with one hand much of what 
it had given with the other. Thus culminated a long 
struggle, which gave to Catholics, not only in Ire- 
land, but also in England, where a milder struggle 
had long been carried on, the rights of complete citi- 
zenship of which they had been deprived as a conse- 
quence of the Reformation. They were enfran- 
chised before the Parliament of the United Kingdom 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 127 

was changed in 1832, this being the last and one of 
the greatest reforms made under the old parliamen- 
tary system. 

Unfortunately in Ireland this concession came as a 
result of events which left evil memory behind them. 
Protest and appeal carried on through a long time 
availed little, but at last a great measure of relief 
had been secured through force, intimidation, and 
coercion. It was a pity that the British government, 
if it intended to yield at all, had not done so before 
violence and threats were raised up against it; and 
that once it was confronted by wholesale intimida- 
tion it was found necessary to yield ; for the lesson was 
not to be lost in Ireland, and many a time in after 
days it was said that Britain never gave what she was 
not forced to yield, and that when she had been co- 
erced, no thanks were due. Just before the great war 
the militant suffragettes were saying much the same 
thing in England, and Sinn Feiners have said it more 
than once since their rebellion. 

In the years which followed* the great Irish leader 
and the Irish members in the House of Commons 
supported the Whigs and the Liberals ; and it should 
be observed that from the first the Irish members, 
when not engrossed in some bitter struggle for Irish 
rights, have been consistent and staunch supporters 
of liberalism and democracy in the government of the 
United Kingdom. O'Connell was of great assistance 
to Earl Grey during the contest over parliamentary 
reform from 1830 to 1832. 



128 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

The Whigs of the early Victorian period were in- 
clined to a conciliatory Irish policy. But during this 
time the condition of Ireland was much disturbed, 
as the people, more conscious of their power under 
the new system and with the new methods, became 
more aggressive. There was a terrible tithe war, in 
which the peasants committed numerous crimes, while 
the landlords carried on a policy of clearance, of driv- 
ing away the tenants, and consolidating small hold- 
ings into large estates. Such a movement in Eng- 
land had caused great misery there during the six- 
teenth, seventeenth, and even the eighteenth century. 
In Ireland it had gone on in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, as agricultural lands were given 
over to grazing; and various causes contributed to 
continue it now. So great was the misery, and so 
great was the lawlessness which resulted from the 
evictions, that Ireland was controlled only through 
coercion acts and a rule of force. 

O'Connell did not consider that his work of agita- 
tion had come to an "end with the Catholic Emanci- 
pation Act. When, in the moment of his triumph, 
a friend had jokingly asked whether his occupation 
were not gone, he had replied: "Isn't there a Re- 
peal of the Union?" 4 He now began to think of this 
as the only remedy for the evils of Ireland, as others 
had from the beginning; but the reformed parliament 
undertook remedial legislation for Ireland, and tem- 
porarily he dropped his plan and supported the 

4Lecky, ii. 98. 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 129 

ministry. In 1838, in addition to a poor law not 
pleasing to the Irish, a law was passed for the com- 
mutation of tithes. The amount was reduced by one 
quarter, and tithes converted into a land tax, thus 
taking the payment from the Catholic peasants and 
transferring it to the Protestant landlords, who might 
then try to recover it in increased rents. In 1840, 
after a struggle with determined opposition in the 
House of Lords, a reform was made in the govern- 
ment of Irish towns or municipal corporations. The 
government of these places had in older times got into 
the hands of Protestant officials who constituted self- 
elected bodies. Such offices had been opened to 
Catholics by the law of 1793, but in the forty years 
since, not a single Catholic had sat in the corporation 
of Dublin, mostly a Catholic city. In England also 
and elsewhere in earlier times municipal government 
had been largely in the hands of small numbers of 
electors or controlled by oligarchic bodies of officials 
constituting close corporations, and in England 
municipalities had only been modernized and put into 
the hands of the rate-payers a few years before by the 
Municipal Reform Act of 1835. Now in Ireland the 
right of electing officials in the towns was conferred 
upon persons paying a rental of ten pounds. 

Some of those who administered the government 
of Ireland were liberal-minded, favoring concession 
and reform, seeing clearly the social and economic 
difficulties of the Irish people; but they had to con- 
front the vested interests of the landlords, many of 



130 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

them not resident in the island. In 1837 O'Connell 
declared that he was willing to try to obtain justice 
for Ireland without repeal, but if there was not to 
be repeal of the Union, justice must be given by 
England. Amelioration was difficult and tardy, how- 
ever, and perhaps the Irish leader was fond of agita- 
tion for its own sake. During all this period the 
great clearances were going on. The fall in the price 
of corn had made agriculture less profitable both to 
peasant and landlord, and now whenever opportunity 
offered, peasants were being put from the land, as 
was the landlord's right by the law, and the peasants 
were turned adrift to compete with other peas- 
ants for the smaller amount of land that remained 
for them, thus raising rents and depressing their own 
condition. For it was the tragedy of these people, 
even after they got some reform, that they were 
crowded upon land scarce sufficient to support them, 
and crushed under rents too great to be paid. Now 
they were being put from the land on which they had 
struggled so terribly for existence, that the landlord 
might turn his acres to pasture or undertake with 
modern methods farming on a large scale upon con- 
solidated holdings. So, there was discontent and dis- 
like of everything English, and vaguely in the minds 
of the peasants their economic grievance against the 
landlord and because of the fall in prices was merged 
into political discontent with the Union, as in some 
way responsible for all of the ills they endured. 

About 1841 O'Connell began another great agita- 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 131 

tion, for the repeal of the Union. With unerring in- 
sight he saw that this was the one question upon which 
he could unite the mass of the people, and again he 
took care to get the fullest support of the priests. 
Some of his best friends in the former movement fell 
away from him, and he was opposed by the upper 
classes of the Catholics as well as the upper and middle 
classes of Protestants. Essentially the movement 
was ecclesiastical, under the priests, democratic, and 
mostly Roman Catholic. In 1843 the movement 
really began. Enormous meetings of the people were 
held, in which O'Connell and the priests gave evidence 
of extraordinary power of control over their follow- 
ers, keeping them orderly and sober. About the hill 
of Tara, renowned in Irish tradition and legend, 
where the old Irish over-kings had once held their 
state, he assembled, it is said, nearly a quarter of a 
million adherents. He aroused the minds of those 
who could hear him to heroic enthusiasm, portraying 
the glories of Ireland to be, while far away stretched 
a sea of people beyond his voice but within the spell 
of his presence. This was the time when an Irish 
temperance movement under the guidance of Father 
Matthew had swept over Ireland, strengthening char- 
acter and making for order and self-control; and it 
had no little to do with the quiet behavior of the peo- 
ple. But so impressive was the result of O'Connell's 
effort that the government was alarmed. There had 
been nothing illegal and no disorder or outrage, but 
here was a new and uncanny power, and it was not 



132 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

doubted that if he gave the word or if some rash 
priest incited the people, there might easily be a re- 
bellion more formidable than the last. Therefore 
military forces were strengthened, and the govern- 
ment intervened decisively. In 1843 another great 
meeting to be held at Clontarf was forbidden. 
O'Connell yielded at once, but he was soon arrested 
and tried for conspiracy. Condemned by a packed 
jury, appeal was made to the House of Lords. In 
days past O'Connell had savagely attacked the peers, 
but they acted now with the fairness which English 
tribunals are accustomed to use, and reversed the sen- 
tence of conviction. 

This was the crisis of his career. He had always 
declared against violence and force, and on this prin- 
ciple he acted when at last the great moment came. 
Accordingly there had been no bloodshed in Ireland. 
But some believed that the day for such moderation 
was gone. There rose up, at first round O'Connell, 
a group of young men, who wished to restore Irish 
nationality as well as redress wrongs in Ireland. 
These were the days when Italians were struggling 
to break the Austrian yoke, and "Young Italy" had 
been instituted by Mazzini. Charles Gavan Duffy, 
Thomas Davis, and John Mitchel, grandfather of the 
late mayor of New York, founded now the Society 
of Young Ireland. They were something like Sinn 
Fein, which arose long after they were gone. As 
O'Connell drew back, they would have pressed for- 
ward, looking upon him as a man of resounding words 



IRELAND UNDER THE UNION 133 

and paltry deeds. For the present nothing came of 
it all. The British government tried some measure 
of conciliation, which resulted in little more than as- 
sistance to the Roman Catholic college at Maynooth. 
Before matters went farther there came a disaster 
so great that Ireland was overwhelmed in terrible and 
universal woe. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 

C'est un grave "moment" de l'histoire de l'Irlande que 
la Grande Famine . . . cette Irlande legere et gaie, hospi- 
taliere et genereuse, la main tendue et le coeur ouvert, 
cette Irlande-la est morte. Toute joie s'en est allee ; plus 
de jeux au grand air, plus de danses aux carrefours ; l'ame 
se fait egoi'ste et pessimiste, la haine de l'Angleterre et du 
landlord s'ancre plus que jamais dans les poitrines. 

Louis Paul-Dubois, L'Irlande Contcmporaine et 
la Question Irlandaise (Paris, 1907), p. 67. 

DURING the nineteenth century the population 
of Ireland was growing rapidly, from more 
than four millions and a half in 1800 to over eight 
millions in 1840. The great bulk of this population 
was engaged in agriculture, there being in Ireland 
little industrial life. This agriculture was rude, and 
carried on with small wisdom and care, as might have 
been expected from the evil conditions under which 
the work was done. On their scanty patches the cul- 
tivators worked, and at the end of the season the best 
that they had produced was given to pay the hard 
rents which were exacted from them; and while their 
wheat and poultry and cattle went to the landlord and 
were by him sent abroad for sale in foreign markets, 
the peasants supported themselves largely upon po- 

134 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 135 

tatoes, which made up the great staple crop of the 
island. More and more was the increasing popula- 
tion thrown back upon the soil, and more and more 
was the soil divided and subdivided among the greater 
number of those who had to get a subsistence out of 
it. Many a time the peasant had between his family 
and starvation only a few potatoes ; always there was 
danger of disaster. For two centuries a great many 
of the Irish people had had in the best of times only 
the rudest and coarsest fare, and very often too little 
food to nourish them properly. There had been ter- 
rible famines in the eighteenth century ; they were no 
less frequent in the nineteenth, occurring in 1822, 
1831, 1835, 1836, and 1837. And as increasing re- 
liance was put upon the potato, there were not want- 
ing signs that the soil was becoming impoverished, and 
that a far greater calamity might be near. 

In 1845 the potato blight spread over England and 
Ireland, and in Ireland the crop was a failure. Im- 
mediately it was seen that a great famine was at hand 
unless the British government took speedy and effec- 
tive measures to bring food into the island for relief. 
But this was the era of the Corn Laws, which had first 
been passed in 1815 by a parliament of English land- 
lords, for the purpose of excluding wheat from abroad 
unless it sold at very high prices at home ; and now it 
was difficult to bring in supplies of food which the 
impoverished Irish could buy. Under the leadership 
of Peel there was indeed a great revolution in British 
economic policy, marked by the repeal of the Corn 



136 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Laws in the summer of 1846, but meanwhile condi- 
tions in Ireland were far more grave. In 1846 the 
potato crop totally failed. The British authorities, 
relieved of tariffs now, were yet hampered by belief 
in the prevailing economic theory of laissez-faire, and 
inclined to leave things to work themselves out; and 
when they found it necessary to do something never- 
theless, they were hampered by inexperience in deal- 
ing with such matters, so that what they did was after- 
wards seen to be partial and unwise. The govern- 
ment bought up large quantities of Indian corn to sell 
in Ireland at low price, and established relief works 
for the purpose of giving employment. But the food 
that was brought in came too late to save the multi- 
tudes who were starving, and the public works under- 
taken were largely temporary or useless. All over 
Ireland, especially in the outlying districts, the hap- 
less peasants sank down in hopeless despair, lingered 
on in pangs of hunger, and at last died — in their 
cabins, on the roads as they dragged themselves out 
in search of relief, on the hills, in deserted places, 
everywhere, until England, and Europe, and the 
world were appalled and stricken with horror. Some 
of the things which took place were so terrible that 
men had not the heart to relate them. It was impossi- 
ble to bury all the dead ; and yet, so numerous were the 
burials, that Jhe same coffin with hinged bottom was 
used again and again. In 1847 the crop was an en- 
tire failure again. Altogether there was famine in 
the land from 1846 to 1849. 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 137 

Some of the people rushed into the towns, others wan- 
dered listlessly along the high roads in the vague and vain 
hope that food would somehow or other come to their hands. 
They grasped at everything that promised sustenance; they 
plucked turnips from the fields ; many were glad to live for 
weeks on a single meal of cabbage a day. In some cases 
they feasted on the dead bodies of horses and asses and dogs ; 
and there is at least one horrible story of a mother eating 
the limbs of her dead child. In many places dead bodies 
were discovered with grass in their mouths and in their 
stomachs and bowels. In Mayo, a man who had been ob- 
served searching for food on the seashore, was found dead on 
the roadside, after vainly attempting to prolong his 
wretched life by means of the half-masticated turf and grass 
which remained unswallowed in his mouth. Nettle-tops, 
wild mustard, and watercress were sought after with des- 
perate eagerness. The assuaging of hunger with seaweed 
too often meant the acceleration of death, but seaweed was 
greedily devoured, so also were diseased cattle ; and there 
were inquests in many places on people who had died from 
eating diseased potatoes. 1 

Pestilence, the wan sister of hunger, appeared to 
complete the destruction. In 1846-7 a virulent 
plague, the "road-fever," fell upon the land. People 
died as they crawled out for assistance; or were 
abandoned by their friends who fled from the pest. 

There had fallen upon Ireland a calamity which 
was owing to numerous causes, for some of which 
contemporary England was certainly not to blame. 
Population had increased so fast that in a purely agri- 

i The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 64. 



138 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

cultural country it could scarce be supported any 
longer. But the disaster was largely due to the ig- 
norance and lowly condition into which most of the 
people had been forced by circumstances over which 
they had no control, and especially to the fact that 
Ireland was still owned by the landlords, many of 
whom lived outside the island and took no pains to 
have care for the peasants who toiled on their lands. 
And it seemed a grievous thing that the exportation 
of corn from Ireland was not forbidden, for the blight 
had not affected the other crops of the island, and 
grain that went out to pay rents was to a considerable 
extent exported to England at the very time that Sir 
Robert Peel was partly assuaging the famine by im- 
porting Indian meal from places far off. The public 
works undertaken to give employment to the starv- 
ing were done largely with money considered as a 
loan to Ireland, to be repaid later on. Hills were 
cut down, and then filled up; canals were dug in 
which water would not stay; and roads were built in 
useless places. In after days it was said that the 
famine itself could not indeed have been averted, as 
things then were, with the failure of the staple crop 
of food, but if there had been Home Rule with an 
Irish parliament, cognizant of Irish needs and sym- 
pathetic with them, much could have been done to pre- 
vent the dreadful things which ensued; and that if 
there had been such a famine in England, the meas- 
ures taken would have been very different also. Much 
of this may be true. Certainly nothing that happened 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 139 

in the nineteenth century did so much to arouse the 
world to the belief that something was wrong with 
Irish conditions. 

Not that the suffering was viewed with indifference. 
There was genuine compassion in England when the 
calamity was really comprehended ; and it is a mistake 
to think that in Ireland landlords continued to reap 
profits from starving tenants with cool indifference. 
Actually many of them, who had been wont to reap 
profit from the land, now went down into ruin along 
with the peasants. Middlemen and landlords gave 
what they could until often they were reduced to des- 
titution themselves. "By the end of 1849 it was said 
the Irish tenants looked as if they had just come out 
of their graves, and the landlords as if they were 
going into theirs." 2 It is true that at this very time, 
what with tenants leaving their farms in despair, and 
the whole system of things seeming to crumble to 
ruin, clearance went on, and consolidation of small 
pieces of land into larger holdings. Yet this is the 
time when the middlemen disappeared, and many of 
the proprietors never recovered from the effects of 
their charity and the crushing burden of poor relief 
imposed by the state. 

Some things there are so complicated and extended 
that it is difficult to be certain, and no proofs can 
be given with respect to assertions about them; but it 
would seem that the famine and pestilence of these 

2 Lord Fitzmauricc and J. R. Thursfield, in Two Centuries of Irish 
History, p. 413. 



140 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

fatal years changed the character of the Irish people. 
From the savage and brutal tyranny of the Mongols 
it appears that Russian character took an abiding mel- 
ancholy and sadness, which the person of nowadays 
thinks he detects in the wailing minor chords of their 
music, and the strange, drear things which the mas- 
ters of their literature have written. For some years 
after the terrible disasters and humiliations of the 
Franco-Prussian War there was persistent pessimism 
in the soul of France. So it was now with Erin. 
The Irish peasant, long noted, even in the midst of 
his wretchedness and dirt, as open-hearted and open- 
handed, gay, hospitable, careless and joyous, this 
Irishman was not seen so often now. There was uni- 
versal pessimism, hatred, and despair, and although 
times were to change before very long, by no means 
is all of it gone in Ireland at present. 

A million and a half persons, it is thought, were 
stricken with the fever; a half million, it may be a 
million, perished from the hunger and sickness. But 
this was not all. From the stricken land Irishmen 
began to flee in a mighty exodus which drained the 
island of its people. In 1841 the population had been 
8,175,124; ten years later it was 6,552,385. In the 
decade 1851-1860 it is said that a million and a half 
Irishmen emigrated, fleeing from the old home to a 
new and greater Ireland, going most of them to the 
United States of America. These were the days of 
the "coffin ships," and of great prosperity for some 
of the shipping companies. Facilities were inade- 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 141 

quate for the vast host of fugitives who crossed the 
Atlantic. In the days when negro slaves were 
brought from Africa to Liverpool or Jamaica, the 
anti-slavery societies used to exhibit a broadside show- 
ing a slaver, like a great floating coffin, with the bodies 
of slaves packed between decks as close as they could 
be put, there to stay in heat and thirst, in sickness 
and foul air, for all the long weeks while the passage 
was made. With the worst of the Irish emigrant 
ships now it was not very much better. Once Sir 
Robert Peel quoted the account of a man who had 
made the passage and had seen hundreds of people, 
men, women and children, huddled together indis- 
criminately, without light, with insufficient air, wal- 
lowing in filth, sick in body and heart, scarcely able 
to move, some raving in madness, some in the throes 
of death, dying without consolation, buried in the deep 
as the ship passed on. And those who survived and 
found in America the opportunities denied them in 
Ireland, who toiled to send back money to the aged 
and stricken not able to come, who presently rose up 
to power and prosperity in their new homes, most of 
them carried through their lives a hatred, often igno- 
rant and unreasoning, but unquenchable and fierce, 
not able to see atonement or excuse, not able to for- 
get or forgive, until, after generations had passed, 
in their descendants it might slowly burn itself away. 
By the end of 1847 cheap food was being brought 
into Ireland and a good potato crop had been gath- 
ered. By next spring the famine was largely past. 



142 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

That spring O'Connell died in a distant land, worn 
out by his efforts, and crushed, perhaps, by the awful 
calamities which had come to his country. Men be- 
gan to think of the future. But Ireland did not re- 
cover. Again a great economic change was at work 
to her disadvantage. At the beginning of the famine 
the Corn Laws had been repealed in England. For 
some time there had been agitation, led by Cobden and 
Bright, to abolish these laws which enhanced the price 
of food, and raised the cost of living to artisans and 
mechanics. Originally the laws had been made to 
protect agriculture in the United Kingdom, and had 
operated to the advantage of Ireland as well as of 
England, and, indeed, as time went on, more to the 
advantage of Ireland, since she continued an agricul- 
tural country, deriving her income from food sup- 
plies raised and exported, while England became 
more and more an industrial region. In England 
now manufactures expanded with cheaper food for 
the artisans, and great prosperity resulted; but in 
Ireland, where farming and grazing continued to be 
the principal occupations, agriculture declined in 
competition with the greater grain lands abroad. 
The Irish export trade in cereals was largely de- 
stroyed, and wheat growing decayed at the same time 
that such small manufactures as lingered on in Ire- 
land were extinguished in competition with the 
greater ones across the Channel in Britain. Popula- 
tion was declining and continued to decline, for every 
class saw ruin staring in the face. The laborers who 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 143 

had fled from the famine found far greater chances in 
America, and sent back intelligence of what they had 
found. At first the emigrants fled from the famine 
and fever and desolation of their land, but as years 
went by and conditions were better, they went over 
the ocean nevertheless, answering the call of them 
who had gone before. "Emigration," said a recent 
writer, "is now the result of attraction from America 
rather than of repulsion from Ireland." 

Population is by no means the only index to a 
country's well-being, and Irish population increased 
most greatly in the early part of the nineteenth cen- 
tury when economic conditions were about as bad as 
they ever had been. Yet the result of all the things 
that have been detailed is that while in the course 
of the period 1801-1901 the population of England 
and Wales increased from less than nine millions to 
four times that number, the Irish population after 
rising from four and a half millions to eight, steadily 
declined again to four, so that now most of the Irish 
people are no longer in Erin but in the lands over 
sea, particularly in the United States, where they have 
found refuge and new hope. And it is Ireland's best 
who have gone, the strongest, most capable and ener- 
getic, leaving behind them in a poor and declining 
country a disproportionately great burden of the 
blind and the feeble-minded, the weak, the halt, the 
diseased. 

The misfortune of Ireland was furthered by a re- 

3 J. R. Fisher, in Against Home Rule, pp. 68, 69. 



144 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

arrangement of finance, which took place soon after. 
There was a great increase in Irish taxation in the 
decade 1850-1860, resulting from the Gladstone bud- 
gets, the increase being due especially to the equaliza- 
tion of the spirit duties in England and Ireland, and 
extending the income tax to Ireland. Such burden 
had hitherto been escaped owing to the fact that 
by the terms of the Act of Union, the Irish were en- 
titled to special exemptions because of their back- 
ward economic condition. It was not to be expected 
that Irishmen would be permanently exempted from 
the burdens imposed upon the British tax-payers, 
perhaps, but now when Gladstone was striving to ex- 
tricate the finances of the United Kingdom from the 
confusion and unsatisfactory position in which his 
predecessors had left them, he abruptly raised the tax- 
ation of Ireland, it is said, from 14s. 9d. per head to 
26s. 7d. It is true, the equalization of spirit duties 
and extension of the income tax to Ireland were ac- 
companied by the remission of a debt of more than 
four million sterling owed by Ireland to the British 
treasury. None the less Englishmen themselves have 
not failed to observe that the increase created a new 
crushing burden at a time when Great Britain was 
going forward in wondrous prosperity but Ireland 
was only beginning to emerge from the valley of the 
shadow through which she had passed. Irish writers 
have seen in it an intolerable burden laid upon their 
country despite the pledge once given that Ireland's 
ability to pay should always be considered. Since 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 145 

that time over-taxation has been the subject of fre- 
quent complaint. In 1896 a Financial Commission 
of the government reported that because of the 
equalization of taxes the result had been very un- 
equal: that Ireland was paying one-eleventh of the 
revenues of the United Kingdom, though her tax- 
able capacity was not more than one-twentieth; that 
from her taxable surplus Great Britain paid less than 
two shillings in the pound, Ireland five times that 
much. This report has been much enlarged upon by 
recent Nationalist writers, and their striking conclu- 
sions have been spread broadcast for purposes of de- 
nunciation and propaganda. But there have always 
been justifiable differences of opinion about the Re- 
port, and strong dissenting opinions have been main- 
tained about the matter. On the other side it is as- 
serted nowadays that actually most of the taxation 
paid by Irishmen is upon their tobacco and liquor, 
and that far from being overtaxed, Irishmen in Ire- 
land are taxed less than the inhabitants of Great 
Britain, and less than Irishmen in any other country 
in the world. 

The period of famine and emigration closed, as 
might be expected, with rebellion and ugly resist- 
ance. Some things were being done for Ireland, but 
they did not go to the root of the economic evil, and 
the continuance of depression and old abuses left 
persistent hate and dislike. Many people then as now 
believed that all of the unhappiness of Ireland came 
from the Union, that any connection with England 



146 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

was disastrous, and they believed that deliverance and 
a glorious future would come after repeal of the 
Union or severance from England by force. One 
might have had doubt then as now, but what most 
Irishmen felt was that things were wrong, and so 
they were ready for rebellion. In 1848 revolution 
was sweeping across Europe, completing the work 
which Frenchmen began before Napoleon's time. All 
through the west and middle parts of the Continent 
the movement was felt, and everywhere vested inter- 
est and old repression went down. In Austria, Met- 
ternich, leader of reaction, was driven from power. 
In Germany the liberal patriots, who would have made 
a united Germany with liberal constitutional govern- 
ment, rose up only to give way to the growth of the 
Prussian spirit, which we know better now. Italians 
attempted to win a step nearer to unity and freedom. 
In France a middle-class monarchy was overthrown 
for the establishment of an unstable republic. In 
England, beyond the circle of European affairs, and 
almost outside the spirit of revolution, conservative, 
redressing wrongs slowly, not waiting for violent 
overturn, there were the vast demonstrations of the 
Chartists and demands for reform. In Ireland the 
effects of the general unrest were felt in the cul- 
mination of the work of Young Ireland. Its ad- 
herents had looked to France for assistance and sym- 
pathy; now following the lead of the French liberals 
they prepared for revolt. What they attempted 
failed at the start, and the leaders were imprisoned 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 147 

and transported. Then danger of rebellion came to 
an end; but the misery and unrest continued. 

In the years which followed, when the magnitude 
of the disasters that had come upon Ireland were 
better understood — the decrease of population, the 
continuing emigration, the decline in hope, the ap- 
parent torpor which enveloped the people — it began 
to seem that again some Englishmen thought that 
Ireland might be peopled with English Protestants 
in the place of the Catholic Celts. Certainly some 
believed that the ills of Ireland might be traced to 
over-population, and that this source of trouble being 
now amended, things would improve. Very little was 
done, then, to make conditions better for the Irish 
jieople. There was still, what there long had been, 
a government hated or endured by most of the in- 
habitants, resting upon force, and ruling in the in- 
terests of Protestants and landlords, who were a 
minority, yet all-powerful in the administration of the 
law, the regulation of the land system, and in oppos- 
ing reforms for the mass of the people. 

He who ascribes this to the brutality or wickedness 
of Englishmen would be much mistaken. The great- 
est faults were indifference and lack of knowledge. 
It must be remembered also that throughout the ear- 
lier half of the nineteenth century while English men 
and women were immensely better off than their fel- 
lows in Ireland, yet many of them also suffered from 
grievous inequality and -hard oppression. A great 
many of them had long since been crowded off the 






148 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

land and driven to the towns. For some time, under 
the old factory system, many of them were often com- 
pelled to work for long hours at scanty wages, in the 
midst of brutal, debasing, and harmful conditions. 
And the getting of reforms to better their position 
was a very long and difficult process. There was an 
established church in England as there was in Ire- 
land; and if the great majority of the people in Ire- 
land regarded it as a baneful oppression, a large 
minority of Englishmen thought of it as an alien bur- 
den also. In Ireland the government was directed 
by aristocracy and landlords; after all in England 
it was in the hands of the aristocracy and industrial 
magnates; in both countries government was con- 
trolled by the upper classes, with the middle classes 
just beginning to share. Often the upper classes 
sincerely desired to rule well, and to a considerable 
extent they did so. But distance, indifference, ig- 
norance, preoccupation often resulted grievously for 
those over whom they were placed, whether it was 
the agricultural tenants in Ireland or the factory 
workers in the Midlands and north Britain. What 
was destined to bring about a revolution had not yet 
taken place: the admission of the great mass of the 
people to the franchise, and their gradual controlling 
the government and changing it for their betterment 
and protection. In 1850 the electors of Great Britain 
were only twenty-eight per cent of the adult male 
population; in Ireland they were but two per cent, 
until a statute of that year brought it almost up to 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 149 

ten. Later on, in 1867 and in 1884, the franchise 
was extended to most men in the United Kingdom, 
and it will be seen hereafter that as the British elec- 
torate became wider and more democratic, real and 
sweeping reforms were made, one after the other, in 
the interests of the Irish people. And I shall at- 
tempt to show hereafter that the relations of England 
and Ireland became fundamentally different when hu- 
manitarianism was more prevalent and when liberal, 
democratic government was gradually established in 
the United Kingdom in the later years of the nine- 
teenth century. 

But in Ireland not much was done for a while. 
In 1848 the Encumbered Estates Act was passed to 
enable impoverished landlords to sell their property 
to new proprietors able and willing to work and im- 
prove them. Usually the Irish landlord was hope- 
lessly involved in debt, so that he could not develop or 
improve even if he would, and the property was so 
entangled and mortgaged that it was nearly impossi- 
ble for him to sell. Now property was indeed brought 
on the market, but the result was not very good, for 
new purchasers bought for their profit, and as often 
as they could they raised the rents further still. It 
had been hoped that lands would be acquired by Eng- 
lish and Scottish capitalists, but not many buyers 
outside of Ireland came forward. A new race of 
landlords came into being, and the condition of the 
tenant was far from improving. 

About 1850 Tenant Protection Societies sprang up 



150 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

all over Ireland. A conference was held to devise 
some central organization for the local societies, and 
in this movement Presbyterians from Ulster worked 
loyally with Roman Catholics, condemning the Union 
with England, and striving to forward the rights of 
the tenant and peasant. Such occurrence might seem 
to furnish good augury for the later co-operation of 
Ulster with Celtic Ireland; but such result was not 
obtained in the end. 

There was by no means general harmony between 
Protestants and Catholics at this time, for not only 
did Episcopalians stand generally with the landlords 
in the Tenant Right movement, but there had long 
been a struggle between the Catholics led by their 
priests and certain Protestant missionary organiza- 
tions bent upon converting the Catholic peasants. 
The forces and passions aroused, which extended 
through much of the earlier part of the nineteenth 
century, tended to widen the religious division which 
so long had sundered the people of Ireland, and in 
the end made it impossible for the Catholics and the 
Protestants to share in the same system of national 
schools and the same national colleges for higher edu- 
cation. Influential prelates declared against such na- 
tional schools, fearing that they might be used for 
spreading the Protestant religion, and so set out to 
procure denominational education under their own 
instructors, in accordance with the usual policy of the 
Catholic church. 

The continuing misery led to persistent unrest. In 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 151 

Dublin Phoenix Clubs were founded by the bolder 
youth, who still hoped to achieve Irish independence. 
Out of these organizations developed the Irish Re- 
publican Brotherhood, under the leadership of James 
Stephens and O'Donovan Rossa. Meanwhile began 
that assistance from over the seas, which has troubled 
Great Britain so much in the past fifty years. In 
America in 1858 was established the Fenian Brother- 
hood or Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by O'Ma- 
hony, an Irish revolutionist. "In the presence of Al- 
mighty God," ran the membership oath of this secret 
association, "I solemnly swear allegiance to the Irish 
Republic, now virtually established, and to take up 
arms when called on to defend its independence and 
integrity." 4 The Fenians took their name from the 
ancient warriors of Ireland, and now set out to pro- 
cure by terror and force what the peaceful agitators 
had failed to obtain. All this movement was revolu- 
tionary and not constructive. It was designed to se- 
cure the independence of Ireland at any cost, rather 
than to better agrarian conditions. It was opposed 
by moderates and constitutionalists; it got no great 
hold upon the peasants as O'Connell's movement had, 
and it did not secure the support of the priests. In 
Ireland it was based upon the efforts of a few fiery 
enthusiasts who gradually won supporters, assisted 
by numerous Irishmen in America, who had just con- 
tributed to the winning of the War between the States, 
and who had gained both military experience and 

4 G. P. Macdonell, in Two Centuries of Irish History, p. 464. 



152 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

confidence in feats of arms. There was then much 
ill-feeling between England and the United States, 
to which they contributed, and upon which they re- 
lied. They had arms and training, and from Amer- 
ica they sent assistance in money. Man} 7 of them 
crossed the Atlantic to stir up disaffection in Ireland 
and spread secret terror in England. 

Fenianism, once so detested and feared in Eng- 
land, was like similar things in countries where grave 
discontent exists without hope of amends. It con- 
tinued to be the work mainly of Irish-Americans, but 
in Ireland and England its methods resembled those 
of the terrorists of Russia, and of those who, it may be, 
were patriots in Russia and Ukrainia under German 
domination. They worked in secret, and they strove 
by violence and terror to procure the measures of bet- 
terment which better means, they thought, could not 
obtain. In 1865 there was a plan to establish an 
Irish Republic. Suddenly the authorities seized on 
the leaders, but sentences of penal servitude did less 
to destroy the movement than win sympathy and ad- 
ditional recruits. The Habeas Corpus Act was sus- 
pended, as often before, and many arrests were made. 
But there was great uncertaintly and anxiety, for 
everywhere the government was confronted by dis- 
affection and threats, until it knew not where the next 
stroke would fall. Arms were sent from America; 
and attempt was made to seize Chester Castle, which 
failed because an informer betrayed it. In 1867 a 
general rising was planned, but again the government 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 153 

had timely information, and a pitiable failure was 
followed by sentencing the leaders to penal servitude 
for life or for long terms of years. From rebellion 
the movement went on in sudden violence and secret 
intimidation. An attempt was made to release Fen- 
ian prisoners confined in Clerkenwell prison in Lon- 
don: part of the prison wall was blown up, and more 
than a hundred persons killed and injured, while the 
injury done to unoffending men and women nearby 
was such as to cause that kind of indignation in Eng- 
land which "Blackhand" outrages aroused in Amer- 
ica a generation later. About the same time two Fen- 
ian prisoners were rescued from the prison van, or 
"Black Maria," in Manchester. In the course of this 
enterprise the sergeant guarding the van had his 
brains blown out. For this three Irishmen received 
sentence of death: even now they are known as the 
"Manchester Martyrs" in Ireland. 

It is never easy to judge such a movement, and 
decision will depend upon the standpoint assumed be- 
fore the judgment is made. In England, quiet, pros- 
perous, and law-abiding, the deeds of the Fenians 
were regarded with horror as the acts of cowardly 
traitors and brutal assassins. The Irish-Americans, 
among the best of whom Fenianism was widely dif- 
fused, contributed to the support of the cause, and in 
their hatred of England far away looked on with 
righteous zeal and passionate fervor : they were strik- 
ing, they thought, in the only way possible, at the op- 
pressor who had wronged their fathers and despoiled 



154 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

their home. In Ireland the movement had no active 
support from most of the people, but they seem to 
have looked on with little disapproval, and whenever 
the Fenians suffered in their wild enterprise, consid- 
ered them martyrs and held them in grateful heart. 
Viewing the matter from a distance, we see it now 
something like the career of the abolitionists of Gar- 
rison in America before the Civil War, and some- 
thing like the deeds of the militant suffragette women 
in England before the great war of the world. Ab- 
olitionists, Fenians, suffragettes, all of them, did much 
that was ugly and uncouth, much that seemed base 
and unfair ; they were not considerate and not always 
just, and certainly all of them did hurt to the cause 
which they loved, turned people away from reform, 
and hardened the hearts of opponents. And yet, this 
is but part of the story: all of them, in a way, sacri- 
ficed themselves for a cause. Their deeds were un- 
lovely ; those for whom they were working must often 
have despised them; but they did inspire fear, they 
did make men think, they did get attention which 
milder methods and more constitutional ways could 
not secure. And when the uglier, harder part of the 
task was done, they would not reap the results, but 
then the more peaceful and patient would gather the 
benefits of things which were wild and ugly, but 
which had done an indispensable part of the work. 
The Fenians failed at the time, but they won the 
attention of the British people at last, and they got 
it as the British government was about to become 



THE FAMINE AND THE FENIANS 155 

more democratic, liberal, and sympathetic. What 
the Fenians did we condemn in itself, and it had to be 
sternly repressed; but it arose out of evil conditions, 
and something of what they did brought those condi- 
tions to an end. 



PART II 

THE NEW AGE: ATONEMENT AND 
REDRESS 



CHAPTER I 

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 

The genius of the British Empire is an emanation from 
the mouth of the Evil One. 

Patrick Ford, The Criminal History of the Brit- 
ish Empire (New York, 1881), p. 1. 
This Commonwealth to which we belong is no "Empire of 
Hell": it is, to all whose eyes are not obscured by pas- 
sion, a living home of divine freedom, in which the ends of 
the earth are knit together not for profit, and not for power, 
but in the name and the hope of self-government. 

Ernest Barker, Ireland in the Last Fifty Years 
(Oxford, 1917), pp. 104, 105. 

THE history of England in the nineteenth cen- 
tury is concerned with the growth and consoli- 
dation of the British Empire, and, what is perhaps 
more important, with the increasing liberalism of the 
government and the gradual getting control of the 
government by the mass of the people, who have in 
the course of years slowly altered much of the char- 
acter of British institutions, and transformed the gov- 
ernment of Great Britain from an aristocratic oli- 
garchy, with power in the hands of the great, into a 
wise and conservative democracy supporting repre- 
sentatives elected by the people. During this time 
the old British Empire was changed into a common- 
wealth of nations, mostly held together by mutual 

159 



160 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ties of interest and good will. This process was not 
altogether complete at the beginning of the recent 
war, Ireland being one of the exceptions ; but a great 
and wondrous part of the mighty task was performed, 
and performed in such manner that by the beginning 
of the twentieth century one of the things which held 
most promise for the future well-being of the world 
was the continuation of the practical, liberal, and 
humane work of the British people and the security 
of their commonwealth scattered in every part of the 
earth. 

Among the noisome things which have appeared in 
the recent terrible years nothing has more grieved 
those who first chanced upon it than bitter condemna- 
tion of England and the harsh slandering of her his- 
tory in the past. Hereafter I shall have to notice 
the silly and immoderate sayings of vehement Irish 
recalcitrants with respect to Germany and England 
at the beginning of the war, which, in so far as they 
were not inspired by German propaganda, were 
largely the result of inheritance from an evil time 
gone by, still remaining so deep and so bitter as not 
to permit men to see the changes come to pass. In 
the future these sayings may often bring repentance 
and shame. But many of the wild and unjust state- 
ments made by Irishmen and Irish-Americans in the 
first years of the war, when they did not come from 
memories of the great famine and old miseries of 
eviction and flight, were actually based upon the 
teachings of extreme nationalist German historians 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 161 

and pamphleteers, who magnified the excellence of 
Germany and distorted the evil of her opponents, and 
who, seeing in England the greatest rival of Ger- 
many, dealt with her most hardly of all. 

England had been cold, greedy, calculating, and 
cruel in the past, said Treitschke, the most forceful of 
these writers; her government a selfish oligarchy op- 
pressing the body of the people, her parliament a 
sham, an assembly merely for the upper classes; 
greedy, grasping, imperialist, taking from others that 
which they held, getting and gaining not through ex- 
cellence or superiority but through the accident of 
mere geographical position, luck, and chance; always 
profiting by the quarrels of others to take their pos- 
sessions away; oppressive to those whom she ruled, 
debasing in influence upon other peoples; an obstacle, 
a burden to the rest of the world. And after these 
sayings had been echoed and increased by a swarm of 
pettier followers, there came at the very beginning of 
the war a writer who in better days had achieved some 
renown for his studies in contemporary diplomatic 
history, but who now went through that terrible trans- 
formation which affected so many Germans in 1914, 
and casting away calmness and critical acumen, wrote 
only with mind distorted by passion and distended with 
the heat of unreason. England, said Count zu Re- 
ventlow, had been a robber nation from the beginning 
of the period of her greatness, and her wicked deeds 
had been more distasteful through canting and hypo- 
critical assumption of righteous demeanor. Because 



162 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of position and circumstances this inferior but fortu- 
nate nation was able to destroy the prosperity of her 
rivals. To accomplish this always she had sided with 
one against the other. So she removed from her way 
Spain, then Holland, then France. Napoleon strove 
against this incubus pressing on Europe, but after 
the greatest of her contests she conquered. And she 
deliberately prolonged wars when she could, that both 
enemies and friends might be the more weakened, and 
she be more able to draw out her profit. In the lat- 
ter years she had wanted peace and quiet while she 
kept the spoil. And the present war came, he went 
on to say, because a free and splendid Germany would 
resist this hateful dominion. Now England would 
strangle her as she had others before: England the 
vampire. This book, said the translator, who wrote 
with a passionate wildness for Ireland's cause, "can- 
not be too strongly recommended to all those who de- 
sire to obtain an insight into the hidden recesses of 
European political histoiy. . . . Founded on piracy, 
the British Empire has been built up at the expense 
of humanity. . . . Germany, in fighting for her own 
existence, is fighting also for the liberation of the 
world." 1 Such statements might be lightly dismissed 
were it not that in less extreme form they have been 
widely diffused and repeated by persons of slender 
judgment and slight understanding. 

Few things are so lightly attempted and so hardly 

i Count Ernst zu Reventlow, The Vampire of the Continent (trans- 
lated with a preface by G. Chatterton-Hill, 2d ed., New York, 1917), 
pp. v, vii, x. 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 163 

accomplished as surveying the history of a nation, 
comparing it with the histories of other peoples, and 
judging about relative merits. Without a knowledge 
of innumerable details and great masses of informa- 
tion, such judgment is impossible; and even having 
them in mind the difficulty of looking over all the data 
together is nearly as formidable; while in any event 
the critic is certain to give to his estimate something 
of preconceived bias or prejudice long since acquired. 
But I believe it is now the deliberate judgment of 
most of our people, and to this conclusion they came 
instinctively and quietly when these last great years 
forced them to think of it all — that with the exception 
of France, perhaps, there is no people in medieval 
and modern times which has developed so finely as 
the English or contributed richer gifts to mankind. 
Certainly there have been many faults, and many 
stupid and brutal things of which Englishmen now 
are ashamed; but judging things in relation to the 
time when they occurred — which is usually not done 
in propaganda or abuse — and considering them in 
comparison with contemporary things in other lands, 
England has right to be proud of her past. 

In the Middle Ages the history of England is not 
greatly different from that of other lands nearby, ex- 
cept that circumstances of position made it possible 
for England, sooner than any other nation in wes- 
tern Europe, to erect a capable central government 
strong enough to keep order and able to get for the 
upper classes a large measure of prosperity and com- 



164 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

fort. Hardly anywhere in these times were the 
lower classes so much as considered, as long as they 
obeyed their masters and bore the burdens put on 
them. During these early times there arose in Eng- 
land a respect for the law, and a habit of thinking 
that all men in the state were subject to the law, so 
that even then there were some safeguards for all 
classes which scarcely existed elsewhere in Europe. 

In the age of discovery and colonization English- 
men took a belated, but at last a very successful, part, 
much in the manner of the others. Through the pe- 
riod of the Reformation they passed without religious 
war, which ruined Germany and tore apart France, 
and with not much of the drastic and terrible perse- 
cution which stamped out heresy in Italy, Portugal, 
and Spain. There was persecution, and there were 
religious discriminations which seem now intolerable, 
but in former times so there were in almost all places. 
In Poland and Austria and Spain the Protestants 
disappeared; in England the Catholics lived under 
some oppression and bad discrimination, but survived 
easily to get full rights and be a vigorous minority 
when better times came; and even in Ireland, where 
the penal laws against Catholics were more terrible, 
Catholics continued to be the great majority of the 
people. "This was not a persecution," says Lecky, 
"like that which extirpated, by the death of fire, Prot- 
testantism and Judaism from Spain, nor was it en- 
forced in the same stringent severity with which all 
Protestant worship was forbidden and suppressed in 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 165 

other Catholic countries of Europe and America." 2 
England did not crush out the religion of the Irish. 
What made it so intolerable was that in Ireland it was 
discrimination by a minority of the population against 
the majority in the country. 

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Ire- 
land, England, and Scotland were all of them lands 
of privilege for the few and the great, with little 
power and opportunity for most of the people. The 
poor and the humble did not easily rise in life; not 
many could vote; the government was a monarchy 
where the crown had lost its power, partly, to an aris- 
tocracy and a parliament which consisted of the great 
prelates and lords, and their appointees in the House 
of Commons; there was privilege for the great, and 
subjection and depression for the many. Laws were 
made by the upper classes, and made in behalf of their 
vested interests. Nor was it possible for common 
men and women to improve their position, for they 
had no direct influence over the government and no 
part in it, and they were not permitted to organize in 
associations or unions, which nowadays help them so 
much. Education was largely monopolized by the 
aristocrats and the well-to-do. 

Not to speak of Irishmen, then, most Englishmen 
and Scotchmen in the period 1600-1800 had a posi- 
tion which would arouse the strongest indignation 
and disgust in their descendants at present. They 
lived in a time when kindliness and humanity were 

2 Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, i. 15. 



166 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

much less widely diffused than at present, and when 
notions of democracy and the rights of man were 
little known or rigorously repressed. The world was 
filled with prejudice, with established religions, with 
divine right and privilege of class. The government 
was by noblemen and landlords; property, political 
privilege, opportunity were monopolized by a few. 
For the many there were obedience, submission, re- 
spect; simple and sturdy living at best, long hours, 
hard labor, low wages, meager living as a rule. Con- 
ditions in Great Britain were much better than in Ire- 
land; but it was not so long since the last of serf- 
dom had disappeared in England, and some of the 
people of Scotland were held virtually as slaves into 
the eighteenth century. If there were absentee land- 
lords for Ireland, there were resident landlords in Brit- 
ain, who might have more concern for their tenants, 
but who lived upon the tenants and took much of 
what they got from the soil. If there were evictions 
and enclosures in Ireland, there was a long and dreary 
record of enclosure in England. If Catholics and 
Presbyterians were held inferior to Episcopalians in 
Ireland, so they were also in England. 

It is true that after a while great changes took place 
which were to modify profoundly for the better the 
position of the ordinary man. Chief among them 
were the effects of the industrial revolution. But 
these very things operated at first mostly to depress 
the condition of the common man further still. Cap- 
ialists, getting the new and costly machines of the 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 167 

epoch into their exclusive possession, were able to con- 
trol in a manner undreamed of before the toilers who 
worked for them. Horrible indeed were the details 
afterwards described by reformers and parliamentary 
Commissions: children of tender years working from 
dawn until dark, women naked and covered with sweat 
dragging cars through the chambers of coal mines, 
men toiling with fetters to keep them at their place; 
people working for a pittance in the midst of hunger, 
ignorance, filth, and despair, with body and soul 
stunted and destroyed. And if one pauses now and 
asks how such things could be, the answer is that for- 
merly when systems changed and conditions were 
new, men and women were taken advantage of more 
than now, for there were everywhere more ignorance, 
brutality, coldness of heart, less humanitarianism, 
sympathy, and regard for the happiness of other peo- 
ple than is now the case in the better parts of the 
world. A great deal of the evil and oppression done 
by England in Ireland during those times will never 
be properly understood now, unless the misdeeds are 
considered in relation to the time when they were 
done. 

But if the evil in Ireland resulted partly from con- 
ditions in England then, and if Englishmen had 
far worse lot than their sons have now, one has only 
to turn to other places then to see how much she was 
in advance, and how much better was the position of 
Englishmen than that of neighboring peoples. In the 
Netherlands, in parts of Switzerland, and in the 



168 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

American colonies there were exceptional conditions. 
In France the people were better off than those of 
any other large state on the Continent, but how great 
were the inequalities, how large the abuses, and how 
little the protection of the law, are known from the 
cahiers of 1789; and these old conditions brought 
France to the violence of a great revolution. There 
the government was autocratic and absolute, with the 
will of the prince the fountain of law; there noble- 
men and prelates were much farther above the middle 
classes than in England; and the condition of the 
mass of the people very much worse. Absolutism in 
government, complete intolerance in the religious sys- 
tem, crushing burdens upon the peasantry, rigid class 
distinction, abasement of the lower classes, these 
things were far worse than in Britain. In the Ger- 
manic countries, so backward as compared with Eng- 
land and France, the princes made themselves abso- 
lute, copying in dull and brutal way the greatness 
and magnificence of France. Everywhere there was 
a torpor of ignorance and economic depression. The 
people, very largely still serfs, were voiceless in poli- 
tics, and helpless in the ordering of affairs. The lord, 
whether prince or knight, was supreme ; the state offi- 
cials were his domestic servants. The money wrung 
from the ignorant and impoverished peasants was 
wasted in ostentatious extravagance or employed in 
creating military establishments. Culture was de- 
clining, liberties were forgotten, and the condition of 
the people was so low that their complaints and pro- 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 169 

tests scarce reach us. To the east and the south in 
Europe the picture is drearier still. During all this 
time the leaders of the world were England and 
France, with the commonwealths of America rising 
up in the fullness of crude, youthful vigor at the end 
of the eighteenth century. 

It is scarcely necessary to examine the statements 
of them who declare that the history of the British 
Empire is a record of unscrupulous greed and selfish 
commercial expansion, that its greatness has come 
from profiting by the calamities of others, that its suc- 
cess is through luck and hazard, not because of merit 
and desert; that other nations gave themselves to 
tasks for the permanent benefit of the human race, 
while Englishmen seldom rose above sordid pursuit 
of industrial benefit and commercial gain. 

That England is foremost in commerce is due 
partly to her insular positi6n at the end of Europe, 
right by some of the greatest trade-routes of the 
world. That she obtained industrial pre-eminence 
was owing to the inventiveness of her artisans, and to 
skilful utilization of her resources of iron and coal, 
which other nations did not have or did not develop. 
That the British Empire is largely an aggregation 
more the result of chance than design is certainly true; 
but so was the Spanish and so was the Roman. The 
French colonial empire of the eighteenth century, so 
brilliantly conceived and so finely extended, has long 
since fallen to pieces ; the modern German world-em- 
pire, planned out, it would seem, in all its details, 



170 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

has caused unutterable suffering and horror, and has 
also just fallen to pieces; but the wide, loose empire 
of the British has not perished like the French of the 
old regime, or gone like the Spanish slowly in torpor 
and decay, because its possessors have remained vig- 
orous and sound, and have also been the ablest, and 
the most liberal colonial administrators that the world 
ever has seen. It is their proud distinction to have 
carried freedom and self-government in all direc- 
tions; and, with the striking exception of Ireland, 
where the circumstances were peculiar and where 
Englishmen were more stupid and unfortunate than 
usual, to have brought better government wherever 
they came. The proof of this was seen in the glor- 
ious assistance of the dominions, voluntary and splen- 
did, when the whirlwind of the German war came. 

No doubt great advantage accrued from the misfor- 
tune of others, though it was not because England 
set peoples to quarrel that thus she might steal their 
goods, but mostly because, owing to fortunate posi- 
tion, she was safe from invasion, and often able to 
stay out of wars. To the United States similar cir- 
cumstances of position have in the past hundred years 
been of greater benefit still. And the history of di- 
plomacy in the period in which England is most con- 
demned shows that she tried to maintain the balance 
of power, which at one time or another Germany, 
France, or Spain tried to destroy, but which generally 
they also desired to preserve. 

Very false it is to say that English efforts have 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 171 

been sordid and barren of good to others. It was the 
favorite device of a certain school of writers to pro- 
claim that while Germany gave all of herself to re- 
ligious reform and the creation of philosophy and 
music, England, dull and greedy, sought only for 
lands and for wealth. The German Reformation was 
indeed one of the greatest of things, but the system of 
Luther was almost as narrow and rigid as the older 
system from which it diverged, and religious freedom 
developed in most places gradually as time brought 
enlightenment and liberalism, progress being at least 
as great in France as in Germany, and the most fruit- 
ful results arising in the Netherlands, in Geneva, in 
British lands, and wherever non-conformists have 
dwelt. The religious wars which followed the Re- 
formation in Germany brought long-time ruin, from 
which England escaped almost entirely through com- 
parative moderation and patience of rulers and peo- 
ple. Germany has given to the world its best music, 
and, perhaps, its greatest philosophy in modern times, 
just as France and Italy contributed the finest sculp- 
ture and painting since the Greeks, and all of them 
have made to literature rich and generous gift. It is 
true that England's attainment in music has been 
very slight, and her share in philosophy and art of 
minor importance. This is not because Englishmen 
have developed merely the mercantile instinct, or have 
been relaxed in prosperity or indulgence. Their 
genius has been in other things. Theirs is the great- 
est of all modern literatures, and in modern times they 



172 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

have taught other nations the art of governing them- 
selves and governing well. 

In the seventeenth century, when political organiza- 
tion everywhere tended to despotic centralization of 
power, Englishmen developed and defended their free 
institutions of parliamentary privilege, and equality 
before the law, and preserved them in the Puritan 
Civil Wars, among the noblest and best civil wars 
which have ever been fought. At this same time a 
small group of men, the Independents of Cromwell's 
army, in advance of their age, proclaimed ideas of lib- 
erty and civil and religious equality, which, taken up 
afterwards by greater Frenchmen, became the com- 
mon heritage of progressive mankind. During the 
eighteenth century enlightened thinkers of Europe, 
like Montesquieu and Voltaire, looked to England for 
example, and some of the best of her ideas, trans- 
muted by the still more liberal and humane spirit of 
France, were spread over western and central Europe 
after 1789. There were great faults in English in- 
stitutions then, as compared with better things now, 
but as compared with the peoples nearby and with 
almost all other peoples then, Englishmen were 
sturdy, prosperous, and free. There was vigorous 
self-government in local affairs, even though it also 
was in the hands of the upper class ; central authority, 
with glaring defects, was yet limited and constitu- 
tional; all Englishmen had habeas corpus and other 
guarantees of personal liberty; there was no power 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 173 

in the state above the common law; there was no law 
to permit the use of torture, and very seldom was tor- 
ture employed; — at a time when almost everywhere 
governments were absolute and inefficient, when local 
liberty had perished, when personal liberty was not 
safe against noble or king and men were lost in the 
Bastille at Paris on secret warrant suddenly issued, 
when torture was sanctioned and not unusual, and 
when the mass of the people were bowed down so low 
that they scarcely had thought how to rise. It should 
always be remembered that once the outlook for lib- 
erty, self-government, and individualism in Europe 
was dark, and that these priceless things have come 
down to us largely because they were defended and 
kept by Cromwell and his fellows, in the era when 
Spain was sinking into mental and moral decay, when 
Germany was paralyzed by religious strife selfish 
and horrible, when in France all energy was being 
given to aggrandize the king, and when civil and 
religious liberty were gone. We share now the in- 
heritance from that period — we Americans have had 
part in developing it. 

The great and fine things which Englishmen have 
done in government and politics have been copied and 
imitated all over the world, as nations becoming more 
progressive have amended their government systems. 
But freedom and right of determining their own af- 
fairs have been freely given by England to the peo- 
ples who had gone out from her and are beginning to 



174 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

be given to those who have been brought within her 
control. This statement is very true, despite the ex- 
ceptions which start up at once. 

Ireland is the principal exception; but in the past 
the evil treatment of Ireland has resulted from pe- 
culiar circumstances and also from methods and cus- 
toms once very prevalent in ages worse than our own ; 
and more recently it has resulted from some stupidity 
and some blunders, something of the continuing Tory 
spirit from the past, and also, very largely, as I hope 
to show, from a combination of exceedingly perplex- 
ing circumstances, which England has found it very 
difficult to solve with fair treatment to all the inter- 
ests concerned, but which she would like to solve 
justly, if she knew how. 

Many Americans will think that British treatment 
of their forefathers, in the days when the American 
colonies were part of the British domain, constitutes 
another striking exception; but no serious student of 
history believes that at present. In the conflict of 
ideas which led up to the Revolutionary War there 
were grievances on both sides; the patriots refused to 
submit to some things which seemed essentially wrong 
to them, and the descendants of these men and most 
people in Great Britain nowadays rejoice that the 
sons of freedom resisted as they did; but it must be 
said that the British did nothing illegal, and that their 
tyranny, such as it was, was the lightest ever exer- 
cised in any colonial administration up to that time. 
There were restrictions which seemed onerous to the 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 175 

colonists, as similar restrictions seemed onerous to 
Irishmen at that very time, but it must be remembered 
that such things characterized the prevailing Mercan- 
tile System everywhere in those days, and that they 
were exercised much more stringently by France and 
by Spain, and by other colonizing nations. Against 
this should be put the fact that the best rights and 
liberties which had been won in England were 
brought to America by the Englishmen who emi- 
grated, and that generally the government in Lon- 
don made no consistent effort to repress them. The 
development of liberty and self-government is a diffi- 
cult process, and that process had been accompanied 
by many disputes and uncertainties in England itself; 
it was not surprising that sharper disputes should 
have arisen in solving the untried problem of exer- 
cising them in colonial dominions three thousand miles 
from the central government at a time when the slow 
and difficult communications of the old regime still 
prevailed. After all, the principal difficulty, as we 
see it now, was not English tyranny or American 
wrongs, but geographical separation. The liberality 
and careless indulgence of the British government had 
raised up a sturdy breed of men along the Atlantic 
coast, who had new interests of their own and who 
were ill-disposed to brook even small infringements 
upon what they considered the rights of freemen. 
And yet — this has often been forgotten, when the 
worst has been said, it should be remembered that in 
the Revolutionary period a great minority, from a 



176 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

third to a half of all the population of the colonies, 
many of them the best, most intelligent, and most 
prosperous inhabitants, refused to sanction separa- 
tion from England whom they loved very well. Lib- 
eral people all over the world now rejoice that the 
Revolutionary War made America independent and 
able to give her peculiar contribution to the progress 
of the world; but the historical student, considering 
things as they actually were, must declare that as the 
French Revolution began in France, where people 
were better treated than almost anywhere else in Eu- 
rope, so the revolt from colonial dominion began not 
in the French or Spanish colonies, but among the 
Americans who were the best treated colonists in the 
world. 

The lesson of the loss of the American colonies 
was not immediately taken to heart in Great Britain, 
but as England developed toward greater liberalism 
and some democracy in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century, that lesson was pondered and applied. 
How well it was learned one knows from the treat- 
ment of Canada in 1840, when discontented rebels 
were transformed into satisfied citizens governing 
themselves. And this wise and liberal treatment, re- 
sulting so largely from the work of Lord Durham, 
was, in the years that passed, extended to the com- 
munities of New Zealand and Australia, and, more 
memorably still, to the South African Union also. 
Thus were established all over the world colonies 
or dominions peopled with men and women of the 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 177 

English-speaking race, stalwart and independent, 
with the free institutions of the mother land, and en- 
tirely in control of their government. 

There remain India and Egypt and a host of others 
in the far-flung empire, which do not have self-govern- 
ment and not all of the rights of Englishmen at home ; 
but the problems in each case are difficult— except for 
the ignorant and inexperienced, who solve them to 
their satisfaction at once. In these countries, doubt- 
less, there remains much yet to be done, and much that 
the intelligent and educated of the upper classes in 
these countries are right in desiring to have done; but 
when all aspects of the situation are taken into ac- 
count, it would seem that with the exception of our 
Philippine Islands, there are no dependencies which 
are now administered so justly and with so much care 
of the well-being of the inhabitants as the depend- 
encies like India and Egj^pt which are under the Brit- 
ish flag. A considerable amount of self-government 
has just been recommended for India, and the process 
will probably be completed as soon as it is possible to 
do so. 

These things which we admire so much and praise 
so highly result from the character of the British peo- 
ple, often unattractive to strangers, and apparently 
unsympathetic in some ways, but essentially just and 
humane and filled with sense of fairness and fair play. 
They result also from the excellent institutions which 
Englishmen's ancestors worked out so slowly. The 
greatest faults in British administration and rule of 



178 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

other peoples were committed in the older time, when 
the spirit of things was less wise and humane and 
more in the interests of the few. During the nine- 
teenth century there was constant liberalization and 
extension of share in the government in Great Brit- 
ain itself, and constantly more and more liberal treat- 
ment of most of the people in the other dominions. 
This came not only from the amelioration of char- 
acter which was progressing in the most civilized coun- 
tries during this time, but from the extension of de- 
mocracy based on widening of the franchise, and the 
more liberal and generous feeling which seems to ac- 
company such extension. 

The reform law of 1832 is very memorable in the 
history of English development, for it was the first 
great overthrow of the old aristocratic and narrow 
system; but actually it did not greatly extend the 
electorate. The franchise which had been before pos- 
sessed by one-forty-eighth of the people and con- 
trolled by the upper class, was now extended to the 
prosperous middle class, and the electorate raised 
from 500,000 to 1,000,000. In the period which fol- 
lowed a great and silent revolution was effected after 
the English fashion without bloodshed or sudden over- 
turning. All sorts of great reforms were made in 
the interests of classes neglected and oppressed. But 
a great deal remained to be done. The government 
of England was by no means a democracy, and the 
spirit, if more liberal, was not yet democratic. The 
great change really comes after the middle of the 



BEGINNING OF A NEW SPIRIT 179 

nineteenth century. In 1867 was passed the second 
of the electoral reform laws, as a result of which part 
of the lower class, the artisans of the towns, were given 
the vote; 1,000,000 new voters were added, so that the 
franchise was now possessed by 2,500,000 or one- 
twelfth of the people. The work was further ex- 
tended in 1884, when the franchise was largely given 
to the agricultural workers and the laborers in the 
mines; 2,000,000 were added, and 5,000,000 had the 
franchise, or one out of every seven. How the fran- 
chise was extended still further in 1918 to 2,000,000 
more men and 6,000,000 women, making the electo- 
rate 16,000,000, or one for each three of the entire 
population, is an occurrence so recent that its effects 
cannot yet be measured; but the results of the re- 
forms of 1867 and 1884, and of the great measures 
which were thereafter passed in consequence of the 
new forces which had entered into English gover- 
nance can be clearly discerned in their larger aspects 
now. Down to 1832 the spirit of England had been 
largely aristocratic and exclusive, though strongly in- 
fluenced by great mercantile and commercial inter- 
ests; from that year to 1867 the aristocratic spirit was 
affected to a considerable extent by the power of the 
middle class, the men of business, the English bour- 
geoisie; since 1867 and 1884 gradually the spirit of 
both these forces, though they have persisted, as they 
do everywhere else with considerable power, has been 
slowly withdrawing into the background before the 
rising spirit of democracy, until at last the English 



180 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

people and the English government constitute one of 
the greatest and best democracies in the world. 

In this last, this democratic phase of their history, 
the English people have become more liberal and sym- 
pathetic, less exclusive and less imperialistic, they 
have reached out hands to the other great democracies 
of the world, they have wished to make conditions bet- 
ter in all places, and they have desired to do justice 
to all men. They have not always succeeded, even 
as well as they intended, and they have not always 
understood what were the tasks to be dealt with. 
But is that not the case with all the best peoples? 
They all have their problems — time and experience 
and wisdom and patience are needed for solution. In 
most laudable manner the British people have suc- 
ceeded in the great tasks which they undertook both 
at home and abroad; and they have set themselves 
resolutely to the greater fulfilment of these tasks in 
the future. Perhaps their most conspicuous failure 
has been with respect to Ireland. It is the purpose of 
this part of my writing to show some of the efforts 
which have been made, explain some of the very great 
difficulties encountered, and show why on the whole a 
dolorous failure continues. 



CHAPTER II 

DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF IRELAND 

The Irish Church had been established for the express pur- 
pose of prosecuting the English cause. It embodied and 
symbolized the alien domination. ... In the language of 
John Bright . . . every clergyman "is necessarily in his 
district a symbol of the supremacy of the few and of the 
subjection of the many." In its presence every Catholic 
Irishman felt himself a member of a conquered race. . . . 
W. L. Blease, A Short History of English Lib- 
eralism (New York, 1913), p. 249. 

THE three great grievances which Irishmen had 
remaining in the second half of the nineteenth 
century were the existence of the Established Church 
of Ireland, the land situation, and the system of gov- 
ernment, which caused them to be managed, they 
thought, through the government of another country 
and denied them the right of managing their affairs 
themselves. The first of these matters was soon set- 
tled, the settlement belonging rather to the older pe- 
riod of the history of Ireland. The second was dealt 
with in unsatisfactory and partial manner at first, 
but later so well that by 1914 the Irish land question 
might be regarded as virtually settled, and settled in 
such- happy way that a prosperous and contented Ire- 
land was being created. Changing the. Irish govern- 

181 



182 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ment was the subject of memorable struggles for two 
generations, until at last the matter seemed about to 
be settled also, despite the most bitter opposition and 
dissension, but the outbreak of the war involved de- 
lay, and following events brought so much confusion 
that for the present the outcome can only be hoped 
for and conjectured. 

A beginning had been made with the land question 
when the religious question was taken up, but the 
matter of the church was vigorously dealt with and 
settled long before the others had been more than 
touched, so that it claims here first place in discus- 
sion. 

The religious establishment in Ireland was one of 
the general results of the Reformation. Where Ca- 
tholicism remained triumphant in Europe Catholicism 
continued to be the state religion; where some one of 
the Protestant forms came to be preponderant, it was 
usually established by the state. Thus in England 
during the sixteenth century the acts of uniformity 
established the Episcopal or Anglican form of re- 
ligion as the faith of the English people, subordinate 
to the government, protected by it, prescribed to all 
the people, and supported by revenues assigned to 
it as property of the church. In England this re- 
ligion came to be professed by the great majority of 
the people, though there were always considerable 
bodies of Catholic and Protestant dissenters who re- 
mained outside the established church and had im- 
posed on them disabilities and disqualifications, The 



DISESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH 183 

Episcopal church was also established by the English 
conquerors as the Church of Ireland, similarly pro- 
tected by the government and supported by property 
allotted to it, a great part of its revenue being as in 
England in the form of tithes collected from the peo- 
ple. But the Episcopalian church never won to it- 
self more than a small minority of the Irish, so that 
in Ireland a few possessed privilege and power in 
church as well as in state affairs. In 1861 the popu- 
lation of the country was something less than six 
millions; the members of the Established Church not 
quite seven hundred thousand, less than one-eighth 
of the total number. There were numerous Angli- 
cans about Dublin or near the east coast, but in many 
Catholic districts there were Anglican benefices with 
.only a handful of church members, and there were a 
few which had only one member apiece. Yet the net 
revenue of the church was more than six hundred 
thousand pounds sterling. That is to say, the church 
of the small minority of the inhabitants of Ireland, 
and they the most prosperous ones, received a huge 
annual subsidy, while the rest of the people provided 
for their religion as best they could. It is true, the 
situation was not so bad as it once had been, when 
Catholics and dissenters had not only to support their 
own religions but make direct payment to support the 
Anglican system which they hated. Nevertheless the 
established and endowed Church of Ireland afforded 
the most striking grievance in the island at this time 
in the minds of a great many people. Actually by 



184 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

this time it had come to be an endowed party rather 
than an endowed religion. Its ministers took part in 
politics: they had opposed Catholic emancipation; 
they opposed tenant right; they were ever with the 
reactionary elements of the state. 

The passing of conservative statesmen, and the new 
spirit which made possible the reform law of 1867, 
foreboded a change. It was evident, since 1865, that 
Gladstone was preparing to support disestablishment. 
Accordingly a great controversy began in which 
pamphlets were published as numerous as those of 
the Home Rule struggles. The controversy was 
bitter; the defence was earnest. The advocates and 
beneficiaries came forward with all the zeal which is 
ever displayed by the hide-bound and conservative, 
and especially by earnest men who see their vested in- 
terests threatened. It could no longer be maintained 
that the Established Church was obtaining converts, 
and so, from the Protestant point of view, bringing the 
blessings of a true religion to the island; but it was 
contended that the Church now existed of right, and 
that disestablishment and disendowment would be 
confiscation and theft ; that the cause of Protestantism 
was at stake; that with the fate of the Church of Ire- 
land that of the Church of England was involved; 
that while Episcopalianism was in Ireland the church 
of a minority, it was all the more necessary to main- 
tain it on the footing which it possessed, and that while 
its members were in the minority with respect to 
Ireland, yet British and Irish were all citizens of the 



DISESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH 185 

United Kingdom, in which the majority of the in- 
habitants were members of the Anglican Church. 
The Church should be maintained, its advocates said, 
because its doctrines were true, while those of the 
Catholic church were false. Its cause was identified 
with the British constitution and the rights of prop- 
erty. The destruction of the Church of Ireland 
would be the destroying of an essential and funda- 
mental part of the Act of Union. These arguments 
have been largely forgotten now, but they continue to 
be interesting because many of them are similiar, in 
character at least, to some which were repeatedly 
urged during the Home Rule controversies of recent 
years. Religious passion was played upon and 
aroused, and one speaker declared that if unholy 
hands were laid upon the church, 200,000 Orangemen 
would stand forth to defend it. Some, more practi- 
cal and moderate, favored the endowment of other 
religions in Ireland. One statesman believed that 
there should be grants by the government to Catholics 
and to Presbyterians, and that the revenues of the 
Episcopalians should be reduced to about one-eighth 
of what they were. But the Irish Catholics would 
have nothing to do with such a scheme ; and it was seen 
that matters had gone too far for any compromise to 
be accepted. 

In 1869, after a general election, Gladstone intro- 
duced a bill for the disestablishment and disendow- 
ment of the Church of Ireland. It passed the Com- 
mons easily, but the Lords strove to defeat its pur- 



186 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

pose by amendments, until at last it was rumored 
that new peers might be created, as was done in 1712 
to get approval for the Treaty of Utrecht, and as was 
threatened in 1832 to secure the passage of the elec- 
toral reform bill, and as was often threatened later 
on before the passage of the Parliament Act of 1911. 
But the peers yielded, as they have usually done when 
their own privileges were directly threatened, and the 
bill was enacted into a law with very little change. 

It provided that after the beginning of 1871 the 
Church of Ireland should no longer be a legal insti- 
tution. The endowments of the Church should be 
taken away, though the church buildings were to be 
reserved for the use of a voluntary Episcopal organi- 
zation in Ireland not connected with the state. At 
the same time the Regium Donum, or gift first given 
to the Presbyterians of Ireland by William of Orange, 
and since that time continued, as well as the grant 
annually given to the Catholic college at Maynooth, 
were to be given no longer. Thus in Ireland the 
state and the church were to be separated. At the 
same time private endowments since 1660 were to re- 
main uritouched. The tithe rent charge of about 
£9,000,000, once collected from the peasants and now 
from the landlords, was to be bought in by the land- 
lords. The total property of the Church was esti- 
mated at about £16,000,000. With half of this the 
Episcopal clergy were to be provided for : they might 
draw their salaries for life, or receive a lump sum at 
once. From the remainder, sums were given to the 



DISESTABLISHMENT OF CHURCH 187 

Presbyterians and the Catholics, though most of it 
was to be devoted to charities and worthy works, and 
that has been well done. 

Some of the Episcopal clergy denounced this law 
as very offensive to Almighty God, and as the 
greatest national sin ever committed. But after the 
thing was accomplished, and the passion of contro- 
versy spent, the results of its operation were seen to 
be good. It was afterwards said that the measure 
had been drawn up with extraordinary foresight and 
skill. And in process of time the members of the 
church disestablished reconciled themselves to the new 
conditions, and admitted that the change had done 
them no lasting harm. In 1911 the Bishop of 
Limerick, addressing the annual synod, at Tralee, 
said: "When Disestablishment came 40 years ago 
many thought it would be disastrous to the Church. 
Who thinks so now?" 1 

i The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 33. 



CHAPTER III 

LAND LEGISLATION 

Over one-half of Ireland, the tillers of the soil, are abso- 
lute owners. ... In a few short years the whole of the 
land of Ireland will be free once and for ever of landlordism. 
... A few short years and the land question in Ireland, 
that fruitful source of poverty, starvation, miser}', blood- 
shed and crime, will have absolutely passed away. And 
with the passing away of that system will have passed away 
the chief cause which kept the Irish people not only poverty- 
stricken, but enslaved. 

John Redmond: speech at Detroit, October 26, 1910. 

ONLY the beginning of reform had been made; 
and however great the concession about the 
church may have seemed to Englishmen, however 
grievous the surrender may have appeared to aristo- 
crats and Episcopalians in Ireland, to most Irishmen 
it seemed that very little had been done, after inex- 
cusable delay, and that much more must be under- 
taken at once. 

During the years which followed, the history of 
Ireland has to do largely with two things: reform in 
agrarian conditions, and reform in the Irish govern- 
ment, with a long series of land laws, and repeated 
efforts for Home Rule. The more fundamental of 
these things, the reform of economic conditions, which 

188 



LAND LEGISLATION 189 

in Ireland meant primarily betterment of all things 
relating to the use of the land, was fought for by 
Irishmen in Ireland, taken up by Liberals in England, 
and soon taken up also by their opponents, the Con- 
servatives, and in course of time successfully dealt 
with. The result constitutes the most important con- 
structive achievement in the recent history of Ireland. 
In the past forty years the land of Ireland, once held 
by the Irish in tribal law, and taken away from the 
people and their chiefs to be held by foreign invaders, 
then let to them by alien or absentee landlords for ex- 
orbitant rent, with gradual depression of the mass of 
the peasants into harder and more meager living and 
deeper and deeper distress, with standard of living 
so lowered that birthrate rose and families increased 
in size, as they always do where men and women have 
little or nothing to live for, until the population came 
to be too great for the agriculture on which it de- 
pended, and until famine and emigration came to take 
away millions from the unkind land of their birth — 
this land, object of passionate desire and ancient 
yearning on the part of the Irish people, became the 
subject of laws made by the British parliament, laws 
which protected the tenant, got for him fairer rents, 
and then provided money to be loaned to the Irish 
people on easy terms to buy lands which the landlords 
might be willing to sell, or might be compelled to sell, 
until now at last most of the land of Ireland is again 
in the hands of peasant proprietors, the bulk of the 
Irish people. 



190 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

This legislation, which has already made a new 
Ireland, and in time to come may perhaps make Ire- 
land one of the most evenly happy and well-to-do 
communities in the world, has been done quietly in the 
main, and has attracted little attention from people 
outside. Certainly it has not been generally appre- 
ciated in the United States, where far more is known 
about the struggle for Home Rule, the Sinn Fein 
rebellion, and extreme Irish nationalism, than about a 
body of constructive land legislation, the most notable 
of its kind ever accomplished. One may assert that 
it has only given back to Irishmen what was taken 
from their fathers, and indeed helped them to pay for 
what was wrongfully taken away from them once; 
that the English were compelled to do it, and did it 
with bad grace; and it may at once be admitted that 
there is truth in all these contentions. But allowing 
for things as they are in this world, which contains 
much of evil, it would be more correct to say that 
British legislation about the land of Ireland is some 
of the wisest and kindest ever accomplished; that it 
will probably bring about a body of sturdy and inde- 
pendent small proprieters such as there is in France, 
and such as there certainly is not yet in England, and 
not even in the United States; and that with respect 
to Great Britain, if it was done sometimes by Tories 
with desire to still Irish discontent, in the same man- 
ner that great social reforms were given to the Ger- 
man people by Bismarck, yet it was also done because 
liberal England and Scotland sincerely desired to 



LAND LEGISLATION 191 

right wrongs once committed in Ireland, and make 
the Irish people now happy and contented. 

Ireland at the present time is predominantly agri- 
cultural and grazing. Industries were once estab- 
lished, and still flourish in some parts of Ulster, but 
the former repressive policy of England, and, more 
important, conditions of nature, have brought it about 
that most Irishmen are engaged in cattle-breeding, 
dairy-farming, and the raising of crops. There is 
small profit in recalling a book containing much that 
is contemptible and silly, in which it is asserted that 
Ireland possesses great resources for industrial de- 
velopment ; but some may have chanced to notice with 
interest its frontispiece in which Germany, repre- 
sented as a kindly and heroic warrior-woman, points 
out to Ireland, enraptured maiden, the sun of a new 
era rising over a splendid and mighty industrial ac- 
tivity. 1 It may be that through the utilization of 
water-power Ireland can some time build up an in- 
dustrialism like that which has risen in Switzerland, 
and is even now rising in Italy and Norway, espe- 
cially if a great body of skilled Irish artisans is ever 
assembled in the various parts of the island. It is 
certain, however, that in great part Ireland's eco- 
nomic misfortunes, whether industrial or agricultural, 
are due to natural causes. There is much peat for 
fuel, but that is far inferior to coal. Vehement 
writers who love Ireland, admired Germany, and hate 

i J. K. McGuire, What Could Germany Do for Ireland? (New York, 
1916). 



192 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

England, declare that the island has great store of 
coal, but England hides this from the world, and dis- 
courages mining, in Ireland. I am as unable to com- 
ment on the alleged existence of Captain Kidd's 
treasure in places along our coast as to decide this 
matter; but it should be said that the official reports, 
ordinarily taken as credible, show that Ireland has as 
little coal as has most of France, and that what ex- 
ists is of low grade, in the southeastern part, while the 
deposits of iron, which might be worked with the 
coal, are in the extreme northeast. And so with re- 
spect to agriculture. The island is encircled by 
mountains and hills, low enough to permit the ocean 
winds to bring copious rains from the Atlantic, but 
sufficiently high to cause the abundant rainfall to 
drain down to the central parts rather than flow away 
to the sea; so that with the two hundred or more 
rainy days every year not a little of Ireland is marsh 
and bog, and great stretches of the land not suited 
for tillage. The soil of Ireland contains about 
20,000,000 acres. One-fourth of this is waste of 
mountain and bog. An eighth is meadow land. 
Half of it, 10,000,000 acres, is permanent pasture. 
The area under tillage is less than an eighth of the 
whole, about 2,250,000 acres. "Ireland is thus 
marked out pre-eminently as a pastoral country." 2 
Yet, in spite of natural difficulties, it is certain that 
this condition is partly the result of old custom and 
traditional practice. At times pasturing has been 

2 Barker, p. 41. 



LAND LEGISLATION 193 

easier and cheaper, and so it has been pursued. 
With modern conditions much of the grazing land 
would do better under the plough. It is' with the re- 
claiming of this land, and getting it into the posses- 
sion of the peasant farmers that the future happiness 
of Ireland is very largely involved. 

The tendency to devote land to pasture and graz- 
ing rather than agriculture, which was so marked in 
England for some centuries, existed also in Ireland 
as well as the tendency to unite small into larger 
holdings. When Sir William Petty wrote, about 
1672, there were 11,000,000 acres of pasture and only 
800,000 acres of arable land. With the great increase 
of population more land was cultivated, the peasants 
often reclaiming it from bog and waste, until shortly 
after the great famine the arable land was about 
4,500,000 acres. A great deal of this w r as in small 
holdings, wretchedly cultivated, and barely yielding 
a subsistence to those who lived upon it. But new 
methods were being successfully applied both in Eng- 
land and Ireland, and grazing and pasturing were, as 
ever, alluring to the . enterprising man with some 
capital, so that there went on throughout the nine- 
teenth century great clearances of the peasants from 
the land which they worked upon, and also a con- 
solidation of very small holdings into somewhat 
larger ones, a process which increased rapidly after 
the famine, when peasants fled from the stricken 
country, when old landlords yielded to new, or as 
proprietors strove to : rehabilitate their fortunes. In 



194 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

1841 Ireland was still largely a country of small 
holdings, but ten years later the number of them had 
diminished to a fourth, while the number of large ones 
had nearly quadrupled. 

Not only was the land taken from the peasants, 
but even where they were allowed to remain their 
condition was a miserable one. Often it was the 
peasant, not the landlord, who had brought the land 
into cultivation; often it was he and his family who 
had reclaimed it. Yet the land was the landlord's; 
all that he did was to let it to the tenant. The land- 
lord made no improvements, as a rule, and if im- 
provements were made by the tenant, they belonged 
to the landlord, who was not bound to give any com- 
pensation, and often gave none. "Tenants' improve- 
ments are landlords' perquisites," it was said. 
Therefore not many improvements were made, and the 
peasants working on with difficulty and no great in- 
terest, were seldom able to increase the yield of their 
holdings, and often in their ignorance allowed the soil 
to wear out, which did much to increase the danger 
from famine, and contributed not a little to the great 
catastrophe which came. The principal ambition of 
the tenant was to pay his rent and get a living for his 
family, after which he deliberately avoided improve- 
ment or appearance thereof, since experience showed 
him that betterment of any kind was apt to bring 
higher rent. And observers recorded that many ten- 
ants considered it wisest to go clad in rags and live in 
filthy hovels, .lest they seem able to make higher pay- 



LAND LEGISLATION 195 

nients. On one occasion a farmer was asked why he 
wore such shabby and tattered clothes. "Sure," he 
replied, "the last new coat cost me 2s. 6d. an acre more 
rent." 3 One easily imagines the economic deteriora- 
tion and abasement of character which attended such 
circumstances as these. Legally the landlord had 
nearly complete power over the soil, the tenant no 
security of possession. Such slight measures as the 
law had taken for his protection were easily evaded. 

But conditions were actually no.t quite so bad as 
writers sometimes represent them. Custom did some- 
thing to mitigate the hardness of the law. In Ulster, 
and less definitely in the rest of Ireland, there pre- 
vailed a tenant-right which provided that so long as 
the tenant paid his rent and held to the conditions of 
his lease, he must have undisturbed possession; and 
that when he gave up possession he might sell his in- 
terest in the holding. Where this custom had most 
prevailed, it had come to give the tenant a consider- 
able security, and tenants bought and sold their in- 
terests as a form of property. It was absolutely un- 
protected by law, but so firmly was it founded upon 
custom that in Ulster tenant-right was estimated to 
have a selling value of £20,000,000. While this cus- 
tom worked in some waj r s to the disadvantage of the 
tenant, yet generally it was so far superior to the con- 
dition recognized by law, that where it prevailed usu- 
ally estates were improved, and tenants, and some- 
times landlords, prospered more greatly. 
* ?G. P. Miacdotiell, in Two Centuries of Irish History, pp. 486, 487. 



196 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

But especially after the famine this right was dis- 
regarded increasingly over most of the island. Land- 
lords now tried to improve their estates without con- 
sideration of tenants, and after the Encumbered 
Estates Act of 1849 estates were bought in by new 
landlords and consolidated with others, and the ten- 
ants pressed out or encouraged to leave. Under the 
new order now, tenant-right custom was never per- 
mitted by some. So it was that in the sad, gaunt 
years after the famine, when clearance and eviction 
followed hunger and despair, tenants who had once 
relied upon old custom to protect them felt insecure 
and suspicious ; and what had been done in some places 
under the land system at its worst, came to be more 
characteristic of the peasant's lot in all places : he was 
at the mercy of his landlord; he might be evicted at 
any time; his improvements went to the landlord; 
if he was cast out he got no compensation for them. 
And so the agrarian situation, very bad before, be- 
came worse and worse. Industry and enterprise 
withered; poverty prevailed; those who could, went 
forth from the country. 

This situation was the root of most of the Irish 
troubles, and it was the bettering of these conditions 
which produced the new Ireland of the twentieth cen- 
tury. Englishmen, long ignorant or indifferent or 
bowed under burdens of their own, at last were forced 
to behold, and then became eager to help. There had 
been agitation for. repeal of the Union, and then the 
Fenian movement.. Finally, when Irishmen showed 



LAND LEGISLATION 197 

hatred for England and sympathy for the enemy, as 
they did during the Indian mutiny and the Crimean 
War, it meant more to Englishmen than it had to their 
ancestors of the time of Napoleon or the age of Louis 
XIV. 

Evil agrarian conditions produced agrarian out- 
rage and crime with which the law was nearly power- 
less to deal, and which amazed Englishmen living in 
the quiet of their own happier land. In 1804 Charles 
James Fox had written that the necessity of Ireland's 
being so repeatedly administered by martial law was 
ground enough for pondering and reconsidering the 
situation there. English travellers, who examined 
the matter, reported that this lawlessness and crime 
was the natural outcome of the conditions in which the 
Irish peasants were living: they reclaimed land from 
bog and marsh; they paid rent to some landlord for 
it ; often they were willing to pay rent ; but they were 
not willing to be dispossessed from holdings which, 
saving the rent, they regarded as their own. As 
evictions and clearance went on, midnight outrage and 
murder increased. Crimes and coercion acts were 
passed ; it was seldom that Ireland was not ruled out- 
side of ordinary laws; yet peace was not maintained. 
Many a one was arrested; but where an agrarian 
murder had been committed, it was almost impossible 
to secure conviction from a jury. In England and in 
Scotland at this time only a fourth of the persons 
committed to trial were acquitted, but in Ireland more 
than half were let go. In 1860, it is true, a land act 



108 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

was passed, but such changes as it made were soon 
found of little assistance to tenants, since it tried to 
help them without taking from the landlord any of his 
rights. Evictions went on as before, and a series of 
adverse seasons brought such famine and misery that 
crime broke out with renewed violence, and emigra- 
tion rapidly increased. It was in the years that fol- 
lowed that Fenianism rose to its worst. 

This was the situation which confronted Gladstone 
and the Liberal ministry, and which confronted also 
the changing conscience of England. As soon as the 
disestablishment of the Irish Church had been effected, 
the agrarian question was considered. At last the 
attention of both parties had been drawn to the evil 
state of things in Ireland, and now there was little 
difficulty in carrying through parliament the Land 
Act of 1870. Gladstone's law legalized the tenant- 
right custom, or established it where it did not already 
exist, so far as to permit tenants to sell their unex- 
hausted improvements and to provide damages for 
arbitrary disturbance of their possession. Certain 
clauses were added by which loans were to be ad- 
vanced to tenants who wished to buy their holdings 
from the landlords. 

But the Irish land question was so entangled with 
evils, which this legislation only slightly touched, that 
much more was needed before real improvement could 
be made. Rents, based often upon competition of 
tenants with each other, were too high, and this law 
did nothing to lower them. It was soon found that 



LAND LEGISLATION 199 

the landlord's power of eviction had in no wise been 
destroyed. The tenant could realize his rights only 
on eviction or when he was leaving the land, and the 
Irish peasant was unwilling to go from his home so 
long as it was tolerable to live there. Moreover, all 
sorts of ways were found for evasion. Actually the 
landlord's rights were scarcely diminished, and so the 
tenant's interests were not much more protected than 
before. Finally, while the tenants were found eager 
to acquire their farms, the government aid extended 
in the law helped very little. The three great princi- 
ples laid down in the Tenant-Right Convention of 
1850, the three F's, as they came to be called, fair 
rents, fixity of tenure, and free sale, could not be 
achieved without more substantial assistance from the 
state, and more direct interference on the part of the 
state with the rights of the landlord. The law of 1870 
was so far a failure that conditions were but slightly 
improved, and discontent and disorder remained much 
as before. Tenants had protection only if their rents 
were not in arrears; compensation for eviction was so 
low that landlords often deemed it well to evict and 
then raise the rent; and in so far as the tenant was 
protected in his tenure there was nothing done to pro- 
tect him from a raising of the rent. 

Rents continued to rise after the act, but for some 
years Ireland was comparatively prosperous, since 
agricultural prices also were rising. Accordingly 
farmers preferred to pay higher rents when demanded, 
rather than be evicted and get inadequate compensa- 



200 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

tion. But after a while prosperity ceased, and an- 
other famine almost came upon the land. Discontent 
was now greater than ever. About 1879 some of the 
Fenians joined with the great new Irish leader, Par- 
nell, and under the leadership of Michael Davitt 
founded the Land League, to get reform, and par- 
ticularly reform of agrarian conditions, and change 
conditions so that the peasants might not be starved 
in another great famine. Agitation and violence in- 
creased; and the members of the League undertook 
to control the land situation in Ireland by means of 
boycott against any new tenants who took at an in- 
creased rent holdings from which previously tenants 
had been evicted. Parnell declared that if any one 
took a farm from which another had been driven out, 
he should be treated as a leper of old. The Irish 
situation became now exceedingly disturbing. New 
coercion acts were passed. Associations of Irishmen 
began to declare that they would pay no rent at all 
which they did not consider a fair one; and a cam- 
paign of outrage, terror, and intimidation followed 
with the usual consequences in Ireland. Yet it is 
very probable that those who resisted did much to 
further the change which now took place; and there 
are some who look upon the establishment of the 
Land League at this time as the turning-point in the 
modern history of Ireland. 

In 1881 a land act was passed of immense import- 
ance: the Magna Carta of Irish tenants. Gladstone 
attempted to remedy what was wanting in the law of 



LAND LEGISLATION 201 

1870, and provide the three F's which were so much 
desired. The tenant was to have fixity of tenure 
under the protection of the state, and he was to pay 
a fair rent fixed by the land court for fifteen years. 
Moreover, if the tenant wished to buy his holding, 
the state would loan him most of the purchase money. 
It was not easy to understand how revolutionary 
such legislation was in a British parliament, substi- 
tuting, as it did, for the old English ideas of compe- 
tition and contract, the ideas of protection and status. 
But it would be instructive for those reformers who 
so easily terminate great evils in the schemes which 
they lightly draw up, to notice how far this act came 
from settling all the evils of the complicated ques- 
tion it was to redress. Rents were much reduced, 
but the market was falling, and it was difficult for the 
courts to decide what a fair rent should be. Like 
those justices who assessed prices and wages in medi- 
eval times, often they were unable to please any one. 
Landlords complained that their rents were cut down 
unjustifiably, and with no compensation to them, 
while tenants asserted that the courts favored the 
owners of property. "The State had undertaken to 
solve, by judicial determination, a problem which com- 
petition might roughly solve, but human ingenuity 
hardly could." 4 

Meanwhile prices continued to fall, and hard times 
together with greater prospect of success for agita- 
tion brought more disorder and further activity of the 

* Barker, p. 55. 



202 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Land League. In 1881 the League was suppressed, 
but in the following year Parnell founded the Irish 
National League for the purpose of advancing Home 
Rule and also to get further reform in the land laws. 
A few months before, the notorious and ill-advised 
Phoenix Park murders took place; new and severer 
coercion acts were passed; and the measures of con- 
ciliation cherished by Gladstone and the Liberals 
abruptly came to an end. In the years following there 
were dynamite outrages plotted in America and perpe- 
trated in London, which further alienated the British 
people. Nevertheless all classes in England were 
forced to think more constantly and more seriously 
about the Irish problem, and along with much exas- 
peration at Parnell and the Fenians there was ever 
more earnest desire to find a remedy and do justice. 

Accordingly the work for the betterment of Ireland 
was taken up also by the Conservatives, and it should 
be said that in later times, when they strenuously op- 
posed Home Rule, they often pointed out, with jus- 
tice, the great work which they had accomplished. 
Some of them have declared that while they have re- 
fused to accept vain, idealistic plans for the assist- 
ance of Ireland, and have consistently opposed Home 
Rule and anything tending to weaken the Empire by 
dissolving the connection with Ireland, they have done 
most of what has been accomplished for bettering 
Irish conditions, through reducing the power of the 
landlord and helping peasants to purchase the soil. 

In 1887, when the Conservatives returned to office, 



LAND LEGISLATION 203 

after Gladstone had failed in his first attempt to carry 
Home Rule, Lord Salisbury continued the land legis- 
lation which the Liberals had begun. Evil condi- 
tions and the increasing boldness and better organi- 
zation of Irishmen made agrarian conditions worse 
than ever. Evictions were increasing; agricultural 
prices were falling. It became difficult to pay any 
rent. In 1886 the potato crop failed. In December 
of that year began a movement known as the "Plan 
of Campaign." It was agreed that tenants should 
offer their landlords a fair rent, and if the landlords 
refused to accept it, then the rent should be paid 
into the treasury of the National League, which would 
give such tenants support. In the land war which 
followed this plan was greatly abused, as might be 
expected, being employed by dishonest people as well 
as by those with just grievance, and against good 
landlords as well as bad ones. There was a great deal 
of boycotting also. Some landlords could collect no 
rents and others were forced to grant reductions, and 
the condition of the country was gravely disturbed. 
In 1887 a Crimes Act was passed giving the author- 
ities large powers to prosecute and arrest. In most 
of Ireland the National League was suppressed, but 
there were conflicts between people and police, and 
much defiance of the law. Yet it must be said that 
the cause of the peasants was more and more brought 
to the attention of authorities and people in Eng- 
land. 

Lord Salisbury, conservative and aristocratic, 



204 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

strong and prejudiced, was little disposed to yield to 
Irish disorder, for this was exactly what Conserva- 
tives had taunted Gladstone with doing. But in ac- 
cord with the j)revailing spirit of the time he did do it, 
and hearkened to the demand made by the National 
League that rents should be further reduced. The 
judicial rents accorded by the law of 1881 had been 
fixed for a period of fifteen years, but a new law now 
compelled Irish landlords to accept a further reduc- 
tion. Judicial rents were extended to leaseholders 
as well as to yearly tenants. In 1891 and in 1896 the 
system was further extended and finally consolidated. 
By 1900 half of all the soil of Ireland was subject to 
judicial rents, and a general reduction had been made 
in rents of forty per cent. That is to say, by the 
end of the nineteenth century the British government, 
which had once taken the land from the people and 
given it over to tyrannous landlords, now took the 
tenants under its protection. This was something 
that as yet it had not begun to do for the correspond- 
ing classes in England. 

It was a very difficult task which the state had 
undertaken for the Irish people. It had established 
and was trying to maintain a double interest, a two- 
fold proprietorship, of landlord and tenant, over the 
soil. It was not easy to do this so as to safeguard 
the interests of both and meet their desires. Gener- 
ally speaking the system worked well, for evictions 
and agrarian crimes were reduced. But the changes 
were made in an era of falling prices, and whenever 



LAND LEGISLATION 205 

rents were altered they were made lower. It has 
been observed that in periods of industrial prosperity 
sharing of profits is exceedingly popular with em- 
ployees, though it has always been doubtful whether 
they would voluntarily accept part of the losses if 
times became hard. And so with the Irish agricul- 
tural situation: "if a period should ever come in which 
judicial rents, instead of being steadily lowered, had 
to be increased to meet a rise of prices, the peace might 
become a storm." 5 

Far more important was the system of land pur- 
chase, taken up somewhat after the beginning of regu- 
lation of agrarian relations, but carried steadily for- 
ward all through these later years. The first device 
made the Irish peasants happier tenants, the second 
made them owners of the soil. Purchase of Irish 
land by the tenants with the assistance of the govern- 
ment was advocated by John Bright in 1866. Under 
his influence a small beginning was made in the Act 
for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869, 
when tenants of church lands were given the refusal 
of their holdings, and allowed three-fourths of the 
purchase price on mortgage at four per cent interest. 
The government advanced a considerable sum of 
money to assist them, and most of these tenants 
bought their holdings. The same principle was used 
in the Land Act of 1870 and in that of 1881, but 
conditions remained such that not many tenants 
bought, and the government was not called on to give 

5 Barker, p. 57. 



206 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

much assistance. Yet the idea was soon taken into 
the greater favor of both parties. The Liberals pro- 
posed a larger measure, which failed, and Gladstone 
intended, if he were able to carry Home Rule, to 
bring in also a comprehensive measure for land pur- 
chase at the same time. Then the Conservatives took 
up the plan. During Lord Salisbury's first adminis- 
tration in 1885, the Ashbourne Act became law. The 
government put aside £5,000,000 to lend to tenants 
of small holdings, where the landlords were willing 
to sell to them; and whereas previously the govern- 
ment would lend three-fourths of the purchase, now 
all of it would be advanced. A supplementary act 
was passed during the second Salisbury administra- 
tion, in 1888, appropriating a like sum additional. 
In a few years the £10,000,000 was spent, and 25,000 
peasants bought their holdings. 

The plan became very popular, getting momentum 
as it went, for instead of paying rent- as tenants, the 
new proprietors paid back the loan to the government 
in forty-nine annual installments, the interest being at 
four per cent. Conditions were such that the prices 
paid in purchase were low, with the result that if one 
purchased he paid less by the year than if he con- 
tinued to rent. In 1891 and 1896 the Conservatives 
caused to be passed acts for the appropriation of much 
larger sums of money; more than £13,000,000 was ad- 
vanced by the state, and 46,000 tenants purchased 
their holdings. 

Thus far all had gone well, even though of late 



LAND LEGISLATION 207 

the progress had been slower. But the scheme had 
so far been successful because landlords had been wil- 
ling to sell. Now, just at the time wheri, Irish ten- 
ants were beginning generally to buy holdings for 
themselves, it was found that landlords no longer con- 
sidered it profitable to sell, since they were paid by 
the government in securities whose value began to 
fall because of conditions prevailing about the time 
of the South African War, securities which presently 
went much below par. Altogether some 70,000 ten- 
ants out of the total number, perhaps, of more than 
half a million, had now become tenants of the state, 
and were on the road to possessing their land in free- 
hold. The scheme had become very popular and 
money was eagerly applied for, but now it was diffi- 
cult to find properties on the market. Accordingly a 
demand arose that the state should make them sell 
out. In 1898 William O'Brien and others founded 
the United Irish League, really a successor to the old 
National League, and began to attack the proprietors 
of the large grazing farms, and demand that they be 
expropriated by the government, and their property 
divided and sold to small purchasers, so as to relieve 
the poverty and congestion which produced so much 
misery in the island. The agitation thus begun soon 
extended into demand for compulsory expropriation 
of all landlords. The movement was supported by 
Protestants and Catholics, the tenants in Ulster mak- 
ing common cause with tenants in the rest of Ireland. 
There might have been here a bitter struggle, but 



208 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

old conservatism and holding to vested interests were 
beginning to give way before fear and a new view of 
the situation, and the more moderate and far-sighted 
landlords sought to effect an understanding with the 
more conservative of the leaders of the tenants. In 
1902 a meeting was held at which an agreement was 
made, known as the "Dunraven Treaty." A unani- 
mous report declared that completion of purchase of 
the land by the tenants was the only solution of the 
Irish land question, and then suggested a scheme to 
make the thing equally advantageous to landlord and 
tenant. 

The program was carried out in the Wyndham 
Act of 1903. By this law £100,000,000 was to be 
raised through the issuing of British securities. The 
money was to be advanced to tenants for the pur- 
chase of their holdings. To make landlords willing to 
sell it was provided that they should be paid in cash, 
and receive an additional twelve per cent of the price 
as a bonus. To encourage tenants the rate of in- 
terest on money loaned to them was reduced from 
four to three and a quarter per cent, though the period 
of repayment, which had been lowered to forty-two 
years, was now extended to sixty-eight and a half. 
Various provisions of the law made easy the sale which 
had previously been complicated with instructions. 

The law was very popular at once, and the Estates 
Commissioners, who were appointed to administer it, 
were speedily confronted with many more requests 
than they were able to deal with. They were limited 



LAND LEGISLATION 209 

to advancing £5,000,000 annually; and year by year 
this was all given out. By 1912 120,000 tenants had 
received assistance, and about the same number in 
addition were awaiting their turn. So it seemed that 
the land question was at last on the way of being 
definitely settled. The problem was being solved, 
but meanwhile many difficulties remained. It was 
found that the total sum appropriated fell short of 
what would be required. Where £100,000,000 was 
proposed, it was soon thought that £160,000,000 
would be needed. When the Wyndham Act was 
passed, it had been supposed that the Irish Land 
Stock, which was to be issued for getting money to 
lend to the tenants, would not fall much below par, 
but in accord with general tendencies all over the 
world this stock declined, until at the beginning of 
1912 it stood at 78. To get £100 in cash, consider- 
ably more than that had to be issued in stock, and at 
the same time, because of the same tendencies, prices 
generally were rising. The government had gener- 
ously, but perhaps unwisely, lowered the rate of in- 
terest which the tenant had to pay. Therefore in 
1909 the Birrell Act was passed, by which, among 
other things, the landlord was to be paid in three per 
cent stock at its market value, while the tenant's rate 
was to be raised to three and a half per cent. 

While the government was grappling with these 
difficulties, created by its own generosity, difficulties 
which came to be so great that they threatened the 
financial breakdown of the scheme, there were not 



210 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

wanting those who from the other side declared that 
the landlords were receiving high prices, that in poor 
years tenants might find it difficult to make their 
payments to the state, and that while the British gov- 
ernment was for the present providing the money 
with which the land was purchased, yet since all of it 
had in the end to be paid back by Ireland, it was not 
fair for it to be repaid with reference to British loans 
which could only be put upon the market at a serious 
discount. Some of these particular criticisms, it is 
true, were met in 1909. 

In spite of these objections the great work went 
forward steadily, though not quite so quickly as at 
first. The problems of dealing with evicted tenants 
and with the inhabitants of congested districts were 
not dealt with as speedily as some expected, and there 
was a revival of some agrarian disorder in 1907, to 
compel graziers not to rent their lands on short term, 
but have them divided among small farmers ; but for 
the most part a great change had come over the island. 
The greatest and most universal of the grievances of 
the Irish people had been the taking away of their 
land. For a great while they had suffered, and, 
whenever they could, broken out in wild disorder and 
transgression. During the nineteenth century agra- 
rian outrage had been so common and life so unsafe 
that Ireland was usually under some sort of coercion 
or crimes act, of a character and severity that would 
not have been necessary in Scotland or in England in 
time of war; and even so, destruction and midnight 



LAND LEGISLATION 211 

murder had continued. Now, economic contentment 
was beginning to prevail, and along with it came an 
order and a quiet seldom seen in Ireland before. The 
work was not yet finished, and would not be for some 
years, but already the end was in sight. At the 
present time one-half of all Irish soil, and two-thirds 
of all that can be used, previously subject to land- 
lords, is in the hands of men who are actually tenants 
of the state, but who know that they are steadily 
progressing towards independent proprietorship, and 
that their children will be owners after them. 

There is still the problem of the congested districts, 
the rural slums, where families live in abject poverty 
upon soil unproductive and sterile, mostly in Con- 
naught, in the west of Ireland; but that also is in the 
way of being solved. There are still also some land- 
lords who have not cared to sell. In 1913 a bill was 
introduced by a Liberal government which proposed 
to do what the act of 1903 was designed to avoid, 
compel landlords to sell; but this measure was 
dropped. Generally speaking, Ireland is passing into 
the hands of its people, more than any other country, 
with the exception of Servia rude and small, perhaps 
of Russia ruined and chaotic, and France since the 
French Revolution. 

The government has also given assistance to Irish 
rural laborers, who did not benefit very much from 
the earlier land legislation. The Poor Law Unions 
were given the power to erect cottages and let them to 
laborers at a rent under cost. In 1906 a law was 



212 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

passed especially in their interests. Money was to be 
loaned to the District Councils for the erection of 
cottages, and the government would give the laborers 
help to buy their grounds. The result was that at 
the outbreak of the war many a laborer had obtained 
a cottage with three rooms, a piggery, a garden of 
an acre or a half an acre, for which he paid a very 
small rent. By 1913 more than £4,000,000 had been 
spent for this purpose. It was often pointed out that 
as yet nothing like this was being done for English- 
men, and that it would be well if the like could be done. 
These are the fundamental things in recent Irish 
history. Probably their significance is not often 
realized outside of Ireland and England. In 
America, the uninformed, when they think of Irish 
matters, consider them either with respect to the days 
of the famine and the great evictions, or else with 
reference to the repeated failure of the movement to 
obtain independence or Home Rule. They think of 
an old England, which they only dimly understand, 
and not at all, perhaps, in respect of things as they 
formerly were, and conceive of a heartless, tyrannous, 
and obstinate nation oppressing the Irish people and 
denying their rights. They do not realize that partly 
because of the vigor and pertinacity of Irishmen, 
partly because of the character of Englishmen in 
recent times and the leniency, after all, recently of 
their rule in Ireland, there has been brought about one 
of the most significant revolutions of modern times. 



LAND LEGISLATION 213 

Irishmen protested and rioted and defied the law until 
they attracted attention at the very time that English- 
men were becoming democratic and humanitarian. 
When the case had been made clear to them, the essen- 
tial justness and fairness that are in the English char- 
acter brought about something that could never have 
taken place in Prussian Poland, and, indeed, some- 
thing that the most humane and enlightened countries 
have seldom attempted. A great national wrong once 
committed was undone by the state. England gave to 
Irishmen financial assistance to bring about for them- 
selves that which the French were able to get only 
after a mighty upheaval, which the English people 
have not yet got for themselves, and which the agri- 
cultural proletariat of many another country sees only 
in utter revolution or some dim dream of the future. 
It is nothing more than assistance that was given, some 
will say, and it was no more than justice merely. But 
as things have been in this world such assistance and 
such justice are not very often bestowed. 

It is not necessary to recall the manner in which 
German writers and propagandists have expounded 
the sad state of Ireland under English dominion, and 
the grievous tyranny which continues. "There exists 
no future for Ireland but increasing tuberculosis and 
death from starvation for her people, or an absolute 
and speedy separation from England," says the intro- 
duction to a book which declares Germany the greatest 
of contemporary nations, that the Allies plotted her 



214 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

destruction, and that the wickedness of Belgium 
brought retribution richly deserved. 6 But this was 
not the opinion of competent German scholars, in the 
days before the war when some of them thought clearly 
and spoke the truth as they saw it. "Irish tenants 
have had conditions assured to them more favourable 
than any other tenantry in the world enjoy," wrote 
Dr. Bonn, when the operation of land laws and land 
purchase laws was not yet complete. 7 And the best 
and most constructive among Irish leaders and men 
of affairs have urged and adopted and furthered these 
things as much as they could. 

It would be a grievous mistake to suppose that this 
legislation has remedied all Irish ills and made Arcadia 
or earthly paradise in the island. The blight of the 
past still lies heavy upon the country. The taking 
of the land once and the suffering which resulted drove 
from Ireland the best of her people; they cannot be 
brought back now; and of those who remained the 
character and physique was diminished. There con- 
tinues to be grinding poverty and the hopeless apathy 
that comes with it. Under best conditions these things 
will not disappear at once. There are also many 
agricultural holdings, in the possession of Irish pro- 
prietors, it is true, but so small that only a meager 
living is in any way to be obtained from them. 
Moreover, Ireland is not by nature very richly 
endowed, and cannot, perhaps, ever be greatly rich. 

e What Could Germany Do for Ireland, p. 21. 
7 Barker, p. 66. 



LAND LEGISLATION 215 

The land legislation, then, has not made all Irishmen 
prosperous and contented; but in it a beginning has 
been made, with great promise for the future, and 
much progress has already been accomplished towards 
a solution of the worst parts of the Irish problem. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 

There is, then, a strange and wonderful renascence in 
Ireland, a quickening of old bones with new life, a great, 
outspreading development which will culminate one day in an 
Ireland which is as prosperous and developed as is Denmark 
now. 

St. John G. Ervine, Sir Edward Carson and the 
Ulster Movement (New York, 1916), p. 40. 

IRISH agitation long continued gained, under the 
new order in England, a series of land laws and 
acts for assisting the tenants to purchase the land. 
As a result the Irish people were becoming the owners 
of their soil; and in a far freer way than was so in 
the old days of Irish romance and legend. On this 
foundation the Irish people themselves, wisely led by 
some excellent men, now went forward to build up a 
new Irish social and economic life, with a success which 
constitutes a remarkable achievement in modern Irish 
life, and is second in importance only to the getting 
of the land into the hands of the people. The achieve- 
ment followed very largely from the efforts of the 
Irish Agricultural Organization Society, particularly 
the work of Sir Horace Plunkett. 

Sir Horace Plunkett had learned by experience 
something about farming in the west of the United 

216 



AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 217 

States. He wished to make better agriculture in Ire- 
land. He saw that as the years went by honest efforts 
were being made by Irishmen and by the British gov- 
ernment to improve agrarian conditions in Ireland, 
but he perceived that the efforts for betterment had to 
do almost entirely with the land as it was, with rent, 
eviction, compensation for improvements, and so on. 
This was very desirable, but the next great step for- 
ward must be in increasing production, getting the 
ground to yield more for those who worked it, and 
this he proposed to accomplish through co-opera- 
tive management in production and in distribution. 
About 1889 he began to work for this in Ireland. 

One of his admirers has said that he could scarcely 
have seemed less fitted to influence great numbers of 
people, ignorant for the most part, and separated by 
dissensions of politics and creed: he was shy, hesitant 
in manner, and with none of the gifts of speech and 
personality usual in popular politics either in Ireland, 
or England, or the United States. When he began 
his work, what little was known about him in Ireland 
seemed against him, for he was a Conservative and 
moderate Unionist in politics, and a Protestant in 
faith. Setting out to persuade small tenants and 
peasant proprietors to work together and learn to do 
better agricultural work, it was thought that he could 
never get Protestants and Catholics, Orangemen and 
Nationalists to act together, that priests and Episco- 
palian ministers would be against him, that the land- 
lords would oppose him, that the people themselves 



218 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

would have none of him. But he was aflame with 
enthusiasm. Day and night, fine weather and foul, 
he went from one little village to another, arguing and 
explaining before dull and suspicious farmers, and 
gradually making them friends. The first great suc- 
cess came when he won the priests, as O'Connell had 
gained them once, for they still had their marvellous 
power with the people. And he enlisted the services 
of capable lieutenants, particularly George W. Rus- 
sell, idealist and thinker, one of the ablest and wisest 
writers in contemporary Ireland. The politicians did 
oppose him, and strongly, after a while, but he had 
little concern with politics himself, seeking to unite 
men of all parties under an ideal of regeneration for 
Ireland. Not long ago he declared that he had not 
been on a political platform for fifteen years. 

The British parliament had made a revolution in 
tenures in Ireland; Sir Horace Plunkett desired 
improvement in methods of using the land. In 1894 
he formed the Irish Agricultural Organization 
Society, generally known as the I. A. O. S. This was 
to be the basis and central organization of all sorts of 
co-operative societies, serving as a center for encour- 
agement and assistance. Soon it founded or assisted 
co-operative creameries, where the farmers sent their 
milk and good butter was made, co-operative banks, 
where they could borrow money at low rates of 
interest, and societies which collected and distributed 
eggs or encouraged the growing of flax. And these 
societies, particularly the I. A. O. S., attempted to 



AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 219 

foster home industries, gave instruction in better agri- 
cultural methods, and every sort of helpful infor- 
mation and assistance. In all this Catholics and 
Protestants were got to work harmoniously together, 
and it seemed to make no great difference whether a 
man was a Unionist or favored Home Rule. By 1910 
there were some 900 co-operative societies, with a 
membership of 100,000, dealing in goods valued at 
£2,500,000. Production was increased and farmers 
were started on the way to a greater prosperity. 

It is true that in agricultural development only a 
beginning has been made, but it was the beginning 
which was most important. There is still much to be 
taught and much to be learned: there must be more 
agriculture, it is said, and less pasturing, and there 
must be a better system of pasture. Ireland now pro- 
duces much cattle and butter; she will be more pros- 
perous when she can produce butter in winter, as 
Denmark does, and fatten the cattle which she pro- 
duces to export. But these things will perhaps come 
in time, through the further work of the I. A. O. S. 
and of the Department of Agriculture, which has 
grown out of its work. 

This work has not only had excellent economic 
results; from it have come social and political conse- 
quences which may have far-reaching effects in the 
future. It has been well said that before the era of 
Irish land legislation the estate was the unit of social 
organization, and that this, of course, began to dis- 
appear when the land was sold in small holdings to the 



220 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

tenants. A new organization was needed for the 
people, and it was furnished by the co-operative 
movement. The spirit of tribal community had once 
been the dominant factor in Irish life ; this spirit sur- 
vived so far in the character of the people that now 
local co-operative societies easily became the new units 
of social life. The local society was managed by a 
committee elected by its members. And just as once 
upon a time most Englishmen received in the manage- 
ment of the humble affairs of their parishes long and 
valuable training for greater future work in self- 
government, so Irishmen of the present time were 
coming to manage all rural business and many of the 
concerns of their lives in their own co-operative 
societies. And, observers say, along with this practice 
in doing things and gradually managing them, a new 
spirit develops: each member takes greater interest 
in the affairs of the community and of his fellows. 
George Russell predicted from this development a 
future society containing free associations of pro- 
ducers and workers, constituting small, free societies 
within the state. This would be something like the 
guild socialism which has arisen of late years in Eng- 
land. Irishmen and Englishmen who have studied 
these movements profess to see in them hope for a 
happier mankind in the future. 

There have been more important political effects. 
As the work of the I. A. O. S. went forward, Sir 
Horace Plunkett considered means of obtaining aid 
from the state. He organized a committee which 



AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 221 

embraced representatives of all who were interested, 
without distinction of creed or party. In 1899 the 
government established the Department of Agricul- 
ture and Technical Instruction, for the purpose, 
among other tilings, of encouraging agriculture and 
scientific and technical education. While other Irish 
boards and councils are represented in parliament col- 
lectively by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, this 
department is represented directly by its chief officer, 
a vice-president. But if it is directly connected with 
parliament, it is also directly connected with the Irish 
people, through representative advisory bodies: the 
Council of Agriculture, two-thirds of whose members 
are appointed by the Irish county councils, which are 
themselves directly responsible to the people, and the 
Board of Agriculture and Board of Technical Instruc- 
tion, which are directly or indirectly connected with 
local government organs. The members of the 
Council discuss matters of public interest in connec- 
tion with the working of the Department, and to some 
extent are able to control it, thus bringing the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture definitely into association with 
Irish public opinion. This system of democratic con- 
trol both in the local co-operative assemblies and 
indirectly over the Department is of very great 
importance in the political training of the Irish people. 
In the local committees men get training in adminis- 
trative work, and out of them come the leaders of the 
committees. There are some who say that the Irish 
are not to be trusted with Home Rule inasmuch as 



222 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

they are notoriously lacking in political ability and 
training; that where they have been given some share 
in self-government there is graft and political ineffi- 
ciency, and, whatever the form may be, a relapse into 
personal and tribal government with modern methods 
of corruption. But since 1898 the Irish have been 
learning self-government in the local political units, 
as the French have really been learning it in the last 
generation; and meanwhile they have been learning 
it even better in their local co-operative organizations. 
It has been wisely said that when Home Rule does 
come into effect, it may be found that the best prepa- 
ration for it was the co-operative movement in agri- 
cultural life. 

Generally the work of Sir Horace Plunkett has not 
found favor with Irish political leaders. John Red- 
mond gave assistance at first, but in 1904 he said that 
the real object of the movement was to undermine the 
Nationalist Party, and divert the minds of the people 
from Home Rule, which alone could lead to a real 
revival of Irish industries. From the point of view 
of the politicians Home Rule or some other political 
device was naturally the all-important thing upon 
which the future prosperity of Ireland must be based ; 
and they found it not easy to encourage a movement 
which succeeded in bringing prosperity and causing 
agriculture to flourish without any Home Rule or 
separation. And the older politicians had reason to 
fear, for this movement and another were silently 



AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 223 

changing political thought in the island, bringing 
about a new alignment, and relegating the leaders to 
an older order, though as yet they did not perceive it. 
A new generation was growing up, which would later 
be attracted to Sinn Fein, but which for the present 
was thinking new thoughts which had arisen from the 
co-operative movement. "They have done with old 
angers and ancient rages," says a recent writer, "and 
the bitter wrangling of semi-dotards, nor have they 
any interest in internecine quarrels, the differences 
between Catholic and Protestant, Orangeman and 
Ancient Hibernian. They are bored by 'the sorrows 
of Ireland'; they do not desire ever again to hear of 
the horrors of the Great Famine or of any famine. . . . 
They are tired to death of rhetoricians such as Mr. 
John Redmond; they are sick of oratory and Irish- 
Americans and Curse-the-Pope-put-your-fut-in-his- 
bellv-Orangemen ; and above all they are tired of 
Ireland in the part of Lazarus whining for crumbs 
from England's table." 1 A new party of Young 
Irishmen had arisen. 

Another reason for this opposition was that the 
leaders of the principal political party represented 
interests which were fundamentally different from 
those fostered by the co-operative movement. That 
movement was designed not only to enable the farmers 
to work together so as to produce more, but also to 
furnish them with assistance and supplies, and enable 

i Ervine, pp. 41, 42. 



224 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

them to market and distribute what they produced. 
In so far as this succeeded, it would tend toward the 
elimination of the middleman. Now one of the 
important factors in recent Irish economic life has 
been the work of the gombeen-men. They sold to 
farmers the needed implements and supplies, at prices 
which they were generally able to fix, loaned them 
money on credit, often on condition that the farmers 
sell them their produce, and purchased the produce at 
prices arranged by themselves. The gombeen-men 
were the capitalists and chief persons of their dis- 
tricts, and were important in political life. They were 
strongly represented in the local branches of the 
United Irish League, the modern successor of the old 
National League, and chief supporter of the 
Nationalist and Home Rule cause, and hence had 
much influence on the policy of the Nationalist Party. 
Accordingly, this party represented a trading even 
more than an agrarian interest. Furthermore, the 
gombeen-men came to be represented strongly in the 
Council of Agriculture, and were thus able to influence 
the Department of Agriculture. The result was seen 
when in 1910 the Department condemned the credit 
banks of the I. A. O. S. as insolvent, and in the year 
following refused it a grant of money. 

What the future may hold is uncertain, but such has 
been the development of co-operative organizations in 
England, in America, and even in Russia, that much 
more is expected of them. It is certain that in Ireland 
the I. A. O. S. has been the foremost factor in develop- 



AGRICULTURAL RENAISSANCE 225 

ing a better feeling of self-reliance and a greater 
economic prosperity; and there are not a few who 
think that Sir Horace Plunkett has deserved better of 
his countrymen than any other of this generation. 



CHAPTER V 

THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 

My poor opinion is, that the closest connexion between 
Great Britain and Ireland is essential to the well-being, I 
had almost said, to the very being, of the two kingdoms. For 
that purpose I humbly conceive, that the whole of the 
superiour, and what I should call imperial, politicks ought to 
have its residence here ; and that Ireland, locally, civilly, and 
commercially independent, ought politically to look up to 
Great Britain in all matters of peace or of war ; in all those 
points to be guided by her : and, in a word, with her to live 
and to die. At bottom, Ireland has no other choice, I mean 
no other rational choice. 

Edmund Burke, Letter on the Affairs of Ireland, 
Written in the Year 1797. 

ANEW generation was growing up in Ireland in 
the midst of better conditions. The peasants 
were acquiring their land, and in their own co-opera- 
tive societies learning how to make themselves better 
farmers, and they were getting new habits of sturdy 
self-reliance. Except when it seemed that the trans- 
fer of the soil was not going forward sufficiently fast, 
the old crime and disorder had almost entirely abated. 
Ireland was becoming more prosperous and quiet; and 
the future stretched onward better and better as men 
could see into it farther. There was increasing con- 
tentment, and it was often maintained that were it not 

226 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 227 

for politicians and Irish-Americans there would be no 
discontent in the island. And yet there was discon- 
tent. It was not enough that most men could now 
make a living, and that some were getting prosperity. 
Much had been won, but still much was desired. As 
old wants were satisfied others revived and new ones 
arose. A great many people believed that if some 
economic independence had been got, complete indus- 
trial and economic prosperity never could come with- 
out a radical change in the system of Irish govern- 
ment ; and that they never could be free until they had 
complete self-government of their own. 

The government of Ireland is an interesting and 
peculiar thing, not so excellent as often believed in 
England, and not the tyranny that some other people 
have thought it to be. Substantially it has not been 
changed since the Act of Union, for though the Home 
Rule Law is at last upon the statute books, this 
law has not been brought into effect ; yet the operation 
of time has wrought change in the character and spirit 
of the government. 

The Act of Union did not bring about complete 
unification of the governments of the two islands. 
The parliaments were merged into one, but actually 
two executives remained. The opponents of Home 
Rule are against whatever would to a considerable 
extent separate Ireland from England, but largely, 
with respect to the executive, separate government 
exists at present, though it is a government in com- 
plete subordination to that of Great Britain. On 



228 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the other hand it is more important to remember that 
in respect of the legislative, Ireland has a share in the 
government of the United Kingdom just like that of 
the other parts: government rests upon parliament, 
which consists substantially of members elected by the 
people, and to this representative body, the House of 
Commons, Ireland not only sends delegates, but 
whereas her population entitles her to sixty-five, she 
has been allowed to keep one hundred and three, to 
whom two more have recently been added; upon the 
majority in this House of Commons rests the ministry, 
which controls the administrative and executive work 
of the United Kingdom, and this majority may be 
made up of Irish members as well as members from 
Scotland or Wales or parts of England. In England 
it is often argued that this is quite fair, since here 
Ireland has what other parts of the United Kingdom 
possess; and, indeed, there could be no proper cause 
for complaint if the arrangement were approved by 
the Irish people ; but most of them do not approve of 
it, and most of them feel that however fair the arrange- 
ment may seem, actually their interests are largely 
different from those of the people of Great Britain, 
and are often misunderstood or insufficiently consid- 
ered, and that since their representation is so much a 
minority in respect of the total number of members of 
the United Kingdom, the presence of their members 
in the parliament of this Kingdom may avail them 
very little. 

Those who dislike the present system go farther. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 229 

The people of Great Britain really do have self- 
government, and it is marvellously well contrived. 
Administration and executive work are carried on by 
permanent officials, who are subject to the direction 
of certain heads of the departments in which these 
officials are grouped, the more important of these 
heads making up the cabinet. They sit in parliament, 
are responsible to it, and are dependent for continu- 
ance in power upon the support of a majority of the 
Commons. If they do not keep the approval of a 
majority of the representatives of the people, they 
bring about a general election, and abide then by the 
decision of the voters. This is one of the most admir- 
able systems of democratic, representative self-govern- 
ment which has ever been devised, and it has been 
copied more than any other system where civilized 
peoples have remodelled their governments in recent 
times — until the Russian revolution. But to many 
Irishmen it does not seem that their affairs are 
administered so. 

In England the executive is the cabinet under the 
prime minister; in Ireland it is nominally the lord 
lieutenant, actually the Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
The lord lieutenant is the representative of the king- 
in Ireland. Once, when the British monarch was the 
principal power in the state, as he was two centuries 
ago, the lord lieutenant was the principal officer in 
Ireland; but as in process of time the power of the 
king in England has been taken by parliament, to be 
administered by the cabinet dependent upon a 



230 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

majority in the Commons, until the king now has little 
real power, and finds his most important functions in 
being head of the social system and symbol of a past 
much revered, so the lord lieutenant in Dublin has 
come to be but a great social figure, a symbol of the 
government, possessing the shadow, not the substance, 
of power. In Great Britain the sovereign, if he is a 
person of strong character and dominating person- 
ality, can influence the government, and so in like 
case can the lord lieutenant in Ireland; but usually 
that is all. There have been various proposals to 
abolish the office of the viceroy as useless, and this 
may be done. As in Britain at any particular time 
the real ruler is the prime minister, so in Ireland actual 
power is in the hands of the Chief Secretary for Ire- 
land. The lord lieutenant, a figure-head, resides in 
the capital of Ireland; the Secretary, the real center 
of power, spends some time in Ireland, but usually 
nine months of the year in England. As the prime 
minister with a majority in the Commons is, within 
the bounds of law, the supreme ruler of the United 
Kingdom, so the Irish Secretary, an important 
minister, closely associated with the cabinet, is sup- 
ported by the same parliamentary majority, shares 
the authority of the ministry, and is supreme in the 
government of Ireland. If the Irish people were as 
truly united with the other peoples of the Kingdom 
as the Scotch are with the English, the peculiar powers 
of the Irish Secretary would probably long since have 
disappeared. At Westminster he guides the manage- 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 231 

ment of Irish affairs; in Dublin he governs through 
the Boards, which carry on the administrative work 
of the island. They are centered about Dublin Castle, 
and because of arbitrary tyranny in the past and Irish 
disapproval in the present and the fact that these 
officials do not represent the sentiments of the 
majority of the people, "Castle Rule" and "the 
Castle" are words of opprobrium and dislike. "Tell 
me dhis," says Matthew in one of Shaw's plays, "have 
yanny Coercion Acs in England? Have you Dublin 
Castle to suppress every newspaper dhat takes the 
part o your own counthry?" * Hostile critics declare 
that the Castle is the stronghold of what remains of 
the ancient regime in the island. 

Many are the objections made to this system. 
Here is an executive not directly, and usually not at 
all, dependent upon an Irish majority for his power. 
The executive work is carried out under him through 
the various Boards. Opponents declare that there are 
sixty-seven of them, and that an official principally 
interested in British politics and resident in Ireland 
only three or more months of the year cannot possibly 
familiarize himself with their work, and thus really 
grasp the administration of Irish business. But it 
has been pointed out that so large a number can only 
be alleged by counting what are really subdivisions 
and subordinate parts, and that the Secretary has but 
seven important Irish departments to deal with, and 
that he has parliamentary responsibility for only five 

1 John Bull's Other Island, act iii. 



232 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

or six. In carrying out his work the Secretary has 
behind him the army and navy of Britain, and also 
armed forces subject to his direction in Ireland itself. 
It is he who appoints the police. Numerous coercion 
acts have given him wide and extraordinary powers to 
arrest on suspicion and imprison. He appoints the 
judges of the county courts and of the higher courts; 
and magistrates make reports about their districts to 
him. 

The laws which affect Ireland are passed not in an 
Irish legislature but in the parliament of the United 
Kingdom. The Irish object that such a body is not 
representative of them, that it has scant time properly 
to consider issues affecting them, and even when it 
considers them cannot know them very well. Here, 
they say, is a government not really based upon their 
wishes or their votes, and carried out by an executive 
who may be just and may be efficient, though they 
think he is neither, but who in any event is not depen- 
dent upon their approval, and not subject to their 
censure or dismissal. They say, moreover, that there 
is an excessive number of well-paid officials, who vir- 
tually constitute an alien governing class which rules 
with lofty superiority and contempt and that the gov- 
ernment thus imposed upon them is burdensome and 
expensive. They declare that Ireland has no real 
self-government. It may be observed that a former 
Under-Secretary for Ireland asserted that he had 
gone to Ireland with an open mind, and, he thought, 
free from bias, but that he quickly realized "that the 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 233 

system was deficient and cumbersome, and that the 
gulf which yawned between the people and the Gov- 
ernment could only be bridged by associating the peo- 
ple with the government of their own affairs." 2 

That the majority of the Irish people are opposed 
to this arrangement there can be little doubt, and that 
it involves a great many things which would not be 
tolerated in England or Scotland is certainly true. 
But he who thinks that here is an abominable rule 
maintained by the English people for the oppression 
of the Irish is mistaken, as is he who believes that Eng- 
lishmen after struggling so long to obtain political 
freedom for themselves wish to deny it to their breth- 
ren in Ireland. Actually England attempts now to 
give Ireland that kind of government which she has 
herself, and while there are striking and odious differ- 
ences, these differences have arisen through special 
circumstances existing in Ireland, with which it has 
been difficult to deal. There have been coercion acts 
and special powers in the hands of the Irish Secretary 
because of the agrarian crime and rural disorder, at 
times very prevalent, and which, however they may be 
explained or excused in view of the miserable condi- 
tions from which they arose, had nevertheless to be 
dealt with. It is true, the Irish Secretary is not 
dependent upon the wishes of the Irish people, and 
not necessarily responsive to them, but, then, no more 
necessarily is the prime minister dependent upon the 
people of Scotland, nor can the people of Wales con- 

2 Sir West Ridgeway, quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook, 
p. 80. 



234 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

trol him as they might wish, nor can great parts of the 
English people ; nay, there have been prime ministers 
and cabinets who have carried out measures displeas- 
ing to the majority of the English people, these 
cabinets being based upon a majority of the House 
of Commons chosen from all of the British Isles, made 
up of representatives elected by voters in Scotland, 
Ireland, and Wales, and a minority of the electors in 
England. It is unfortunate that these things must 
be, but they are the defects of the majority principle 
in the representative system, and no real remedy has 
yet been found to avoid them. As things are the 
minority must acquiesce, biding its time until it can 
be in the majority. It is true that the Irish members 
are decidedly a minority in the entire House of Com- 
mons, and thus the House of Commons could always 
do things whether the Irish members approved of 
them or not. But what it is important to understand 
is that the Irish members stand in the parliament of 
the United Kingdom on the same footing as the mem- 
bers from Wales and Scotland and from the various 
parts of England, the principal difference being that 
in the House of Commons they have a great many 
more members than their diminished population 
entitles them to have — they are over-represented, not 
under-represented; and that if laws often are passed 
of which they disapprove, so do they sometimes assist 
in passing measures to which the majority of the 
English or the Scottish peoples may be opposed, but 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 235 

to which nevertheless these peoples submit loyally, and 
without desiring to change the whole system. 

After all, these things seem right or wrong accord- 
ing to the point of view, or with respect to the circum- 
stances of the case, and not as the result of any verbal 
statement or reasoned exposition. They suit the 
English people and work well with them, and so with 
the Scottish and the Welsh for the most part. Once 
they did not suit a great many of the Scots, but in 
course of time their objections have vanished. With 
respect to Ireland there is not much inherently unjust 
or unsuitable about the arrangement, and if the Irish 
people had in the past been united in spirit and 
interests with the British people most probably they 
would have no objection now. But here is one of 
the great failures of Britain: she has not won the 
Irish ; and now they are averse from the system which 
she has and wishes to share with them, and often she 
is not able to make it work with them except by 
coercion and force. 

It is but fair to say also that while the best opinion 
in Great Britain now favors the granting of Home 
Rule to Ireland if the greater number of the Irish 
people desire it, yet, except for the strong national 
feeling which has been aroused, it would not neces- 
sarily be in defiance of justice, and not undoubtedly 
against the best interests of all, if the present connec- 
tion were continued. These matters we cannot surely 
decide; similar tilings when decided one way or the 



23G IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

other in the past have later on been thought settled 
for the best. We believe it was well that we were 
able to separate from England; the Canadians now 
are certain it was best that they failed to do so. We 
have had such problems ourselves. Once upon a time 
it would have been quite in accord with the law if 
parts of our country had withdrawn themselves from 
the Union, though there are few people in the United 
States now who do not rejoice that such schemes in 
New England and elsewhere came to naught. The 
middle part of the history of the United States is 
largely engrossed with the gradual drawing apart in 
spirit and interests of the North and the South. At 
last Americans fought one of the greatest of wars to 
settle this matter. It is well to remember that few 
of the arguments advanced to support the justice of 
the contentions of those who desire Home Rule were 
not put forward by Southern statesmen, to support 
their right to set up a government of their own; and 
some of the ablest of the old school of Southern his- 
torians have with much justice taken the ground that 
the Southern people were fighting a war of liberation 
against the North, just as the American colonists had 
once tried to liberate themselves in the Revolutionary 
War against England. The followers of Washington 
succeeded, and their descendants are certain that they 
were right ; Davis and Lee and the others failed ; their 
opponents believed that war had sealed a bad cause; 
they themselves felt that right had failed; just as the 
beaten loyalists of the American Revolution were sure 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 237 

that injustice and error had triumphed. But now at 
last most people North and South are glad that the 
Union was preserved. It is, I believe, the same with 
Ireland. If Home Rule is not given, and the present 
system is maintained for the most part, with its objec- 
tionable features withdrawn, as circumstances permit 
this to be done, if the economic prosperity of Ireland 
continues to develop, and if nationalism and Sinn 
Fein can be directed along such lines as nationality 
has taken in Scotland and Wales, it is most probable 
that a new generation of Irishmen later on will no 
longer desire Home Rule, and not feel that a wrong 
was done, when such a government was not granted to 
their fathers, no more than the Scots or the Welsh. 
If Home Rule is given, as it probably will be, to all 
of Ireland or to part, there will anyhow after a while 
be closer drawing together of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, brought about by better recognition of their 
common interests. 

Accordingly, with respect to the interests of all 
concerned in the British Isles, the chief argument 
for the justice of Home Rule is not that Ireland is 
administered by a governmental system which is 
intrinsically bad, for obviously that is not so, how- 
ever much may be needed certain changes in detail; 
nor is such argument, perhaps, that most of the Irish 
people desire it at present, since however just secession 
or some form of local control may seem to those who 
desire it, partial or entire separation may be unjust 
to those from whom the separation is planned, and 



238 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

then must not be permitted to take place. Not infre- 
quently a community wishes to go by itself. Not only 
did South Carolina threaten secession and at last put 
it into effect, but, it may be recalled, at one time dur- 
ing the Civil War New York City desired to secede 
and establish a separate commonwealth. Rather the 
justification for Home Rule is that in the future it 
may be better in the interests of all of the British Isles 
if the vast mass of business which concerns them, and 
which now crushes the parliament and the ministry of 
the Empire under an intolerable load, can be devolved 
upon subordinate local governments for the different 
parts, Scotland, Wales, even different portions of 
England, as well as on Ireland or parts thereof. 

But since the Irish recently have not felt that their 
interests are close enough to those of the rest of the 
United Kingdom to make the system of government 
which does so well for Great Britain well suited for 
them, they have been able from their side to erect a 
powerful argument. They say that actually the Irish 
executive is not responsible to Irish opinion, except 
that part of it which is contained in the Department of 
Agriculture. All the other departments, through 
which Irish government is administered, are not amen- 
able to the Irish people, in any certain or direct man- 
ner. Unless there can be responsibility of all of them 
to a representative Irish body, there can be no real 
democratic government in Ireland; and under the 
present system there is always coercion, whether active 
and overt or merely indirect and silent. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 239 

So, it will be seen that here is the old story, often a 
tragic one, of real difference of opinion and apparent 
irreconcilability of interest, where at their best both 
parties mean to do right, and from their own points of 
view are each of them right. In such a conflict the 
issue can be decided either by force, and then the 
operation of time, or by mutual forbearance and 
justice, by conciliation and wisdom. Home Rule or 
something equivalent is probably coming to Ireland 
soon enough now, not because as a matter of political 
science it is essentially wrong for Ireland not to have 
it, nor as a matter of politics because Ireland can com- 
pel the granting of it, but because it is of the nature 
of the great British democracy to desire to assist and 
propagate free government resting on the wishes of 
the governed. It will be seen later on that so far as 
Home Rule is concerned, the principal obstacles no 
longer arise from Great Britain. But I shall like- 
wise have to show that at present the dominant feel- 
ing in Ireland is nationalism not politics, and that 
the great issue at the time of my writing is not Home 
Rule but complete independence. 

It should be said in conclusion that full control has 
been given to the Irish people of their local affairs, as 
full as in England. This was given recently, but only 
a little later than to the people of England themselves. 
It is well known that in England in early times an 
admirable system of local government was developed, 
wherein the counties or the parishes controlled to a 
great extent the administration of their own affairs, 



240 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

and did not soon become, as in France, subject to con- 
stant direction and control by the central government. 
Much the same system was developed in Ireland. 
But while there was local government, this govern- 
ment was not for the most part democratic govern- 
ment except sometimes in the parishes with respect to 
very petty affairs. Local power in England was in 
the hands of the squirearchy or country gentlemen, 
and was exercised through the justices of the peace. 
Slowly in the nineteenth century their powers were 
taken from them, and in 1888 the system was brought 
to an end, when an act was passed establishing elective 
county councils for the administration of local affairs. 
Similarly, in Ireland the local gentry and landlords 
had control of local government, which they exercised 
through the grand juries, which were nominated by 
the sheriffs from the local gentry. This was ended 
by the Irish Local Government Act of 1898, which 
took from the landlords their political powers, at the 
very time that land purchase was depriving them of 
their social and economic importance. The Irish 
grand juries now lost their administrative functions, 
government of the counties being given to elective 
councils. There was much protest against the making 
of this reform in Ireland, and much fear was expressed 
that the powers conferred would be grossly abused, 
and that the political inexperience of the people would 
entail certain failure. Actually the results have been 
excellent. There have been mistakes, and it is not 
hard to discover defects; but on the whole local 



THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND 241 

administration has been cheap and efficient. Advo- 
cates of Home Rule point to this eagerly as vindica- 
tion of their contentions that the Irish people will rule 
themselves wisely under their own prime minister and 
parliament. Like the English women suffragists of 
the last decade they maintain that if they have demon- 
strated their fitness in local government, they have 
given earnest of their fitness to manage national 
affairs. And if it is remembered that the numerous 
co-operative societies of the I. A. O. S. manage then- 
affairs through committees elected by the members, 
"we shall see that in the last decade of the nineteenth 
century Ireland acquired a system of local self-govern- 
ment which in variety of range and breadth of function 
goes even beyond the system which exists in Eng- 
land." 3 Irish self-government, whatever its extent in 
the future, is being placed on a solid foundation. 

3 Barker, p. 95. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 

From the first moment the Irish people was granted an 
articulate political voice it pronounced by a majority of four 
to one of its representatives in favour of Home Rule. That 
verdict was repeated substantially in the same proportions 
in 1886 and in 1892, and when Mr. Gladstone spoke in 1893 
he had in support of the proposition that "Ireland demands 
Home Rule" the evidence of three successive General Elec- 
tions. 

Since then nearly twenty years have passed, and from the 
date of the extension of the Franchise in 1884 we have had 
eight General Elections. The fortunes of parties in this 
House have during that time ebbed and flowed ; Governments 
have come and gone ; great personalities have filled the scene, 
and passed away. We have had as a nation peace and war, 
adversity and prosperity, shifting issues, changing policies ; 
but throughout the welter and confusion, amid all the vary- 
ing phases and fields of our electoral and Parliamentary 
campaigns, one thing has remained constant, subject neither 
to eclipse nor wane, the insistence and persistence of the Irish 
demand. 

Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons, April 11, 1912. 

IN after days it seemed to Irishmen that the misery 
and subjection of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries were brought to an end when an independ- 
ent parliament was established for a while after 1782. 
Some looked back upon Grattan's period as a golden 

242 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 243 

age; others, who understood that in these years there 
was many a failure, believed none the less that if only 
an Irish parliament had endured longer, if only the 
Irish people had been given full chance to work out 
their destiny, in time all of the difficulties would have 
been overcome, and Ireland made prosperous and well. 
After the Act of Union there were always many who 
did not love it, and when in course of time it was seen 
that though some grievances were removed others 
remained, there were many who desired separation 
partial or complete. When O'Connell had gained 
Catholic emancipation, he began a movement for 
repeal of the Union, but this effort collapsed just 
before the great famine took all the heart out of Ire- 
land. It was carried forward again by the Young 
Ireland Party and afterwards by the Fenians, who 
desired independence or complete separation, and who 
tried to accomplish their aims by rebellion and assassi- 
nation and terror. Stern and determined opposition 
from England caused their agitation to die out after 
a while. Gradually it was succeeded by something 
milder and less extreme, destined for a long time to 
be much more important. 

There had all along been moderate spirits like Arch- 
bishop McHale, who opposed rebellion and believed 
separation from Great Britain impracticable, and who 
therefore discountenanced movements like that of 
Young Ireland, but who wanted some sort of autono- 
mous government erected. Such ideas attained more 
prominence when in 1870 there was founded in Dublin 



2U IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

a Home Government Association of Ireland, in which 
Liberals and Conservatives, Protestants and Catholics 
united to support the getting of Irish self-government. 
They desired an Irish parliament which should control 
Irish internal affairs, with Ireland continuing to be 
represented in the parliament at Westminster. In 
1873 the new 'association was reconstituted as the 
Home Rule League. In the general election next 
year Irish constituencies returned to parliament some 
sixty members to advocate its policy of Home Rule. 
Their leader was Isaac Butt, who had entered parlia- 
ment in 1871. His program was explained in a 
pamphlet entitled Irish Federalism , which he had pub- 
lished the year before. He declared that it was not 
possible to repeal the Act of Union, and that this was 
neither necessary nor desirable. But England might 
safely grant a subordinate parliament, which was all 
that Ireland needed for the full development of her 
national life. In a federal union, he said, she would 
be better off than with a parliament completely inde- 
pendent, since she might still share in imperial con- 
cerns through her representation in the parliament at 
London. He said, what has come to be believed by 
many Liberal statesmen of the present generation, 
that the resulting division of labor would be to the ad- 
vantage of all, since the House of Commons, as things 
were, was much overworked, while Irish and Scottish 
affairs were neglected nevertheless. The pamphlets 
of the Home Rule League won the majority of Irish- 
men who considered the matter, but in England little 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 245 

attention was gained. Butt was genial in temper, not 
favoring violence or force, an able thinker, and a fine, 
scholarly man, but without the dominating character 
and the arts of leadership which guide political forces. 
He formulated the Home Rule program, but he got 
no attention in parliament; and it was left to others to 
take up his ideas and make a great issue from them. 
After a while there was division in the Home Rule 
ranks, and the minority followed a new leader with 
character strikingly different. 

Charles Stewart Parnell is the dominant figure in 
Irish history in the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, as O'Connell was in the earlier. He was of 
English descent, an aristocrat by temperament and 
birth. So far as he adhered to religious creed he was 
a Protestant. Some have compared him with Dean 
Swift, who turned upon England from personal 
hatred and because of anger at oppression. From his 
mother he had taken an intense hatred of Englishmen, 
which events in Ireland raised to a quenchless fire. 
He was cold, undemonstrative, almost repellent, but 
with strange and unexplainable power over those 
whom he led, and he had an unyielding strength and 
tenacity of purpose. "P. extraordinarily close, 
tenacious, and sharp," says one who saw him. He 
"went on repeating his points in his impenetrable 
way." * Parnell took up the Home Rule movement 
and changed its methods entirely. 

His plan was parliamentary obstruction in the 

i Morley, Life of Gladstone, iii, 305, 306. 



246 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

House of Commons. He would follow all parlia- 
mentary rules, but within those rules he would harass 
and obstruct as much as he could. The great electoral 
reforms had not yet greatly changed the character of 
the Commons. It was still to a great extent the 
stronghold of precedent and procedure, conservative 
and aristocratic in opinion. In this body Parnell 
attempted to get consideration for Ireland. His plan 
was to work in government time, help anyone to waste 
government time, block all business, and hurt and 
embitter his opponents. He and his followers spoke 
on any subject -at any time as 1 long«as they could, and 
relieved each other to be sure that the work should not 
cease. He had little ability for speaking at first, and 
his delivery sounded much like a series of hissings, but 
by application and sheer strength of will he succeeded 
in becoming, if not a great orator, a powerful speaker. 
Gladstone declared that he was able to do what few 
speakers accomplish, say what he meant. His longer 
speeches left the " impression from a grey and sunless 
day in which everything shows clear but also hard and 
cold." - Hitherto in the Houses Irish affairs had been 
ignored politely; but now Parnell, if he could not get 
attention for them, would pay attention, and much 
unwelcome attention, to British affairs, harassing and 
delaying and striving to prevent anything being 
accomplished. He was soon joined by one after 
another of the Home Rule members. 

- Quoted by Shane Leslie, The Irish Issue in Jts dmericaji Aspect 
(New York, 1917), p. 58, 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 247 

In 1877 he was elected president of the Home Rule 
Federation of Great Britain. Like O'Connell, he 
declared himself opposed to the use of force, but 
gradually he allied himself with such of the Fenians 
as would support parliamentary agitation. He gave 
attention to the land question, as was necessary for 
any Irish leader at that time. In 1880 he was made 
president of the Land League, founded the year 
before, and became actually head of the Irish party 
and leader of the agrarian revolt which was directed 
against evictions and rackrents, and intended to obtain 
ownership of the soil for those who occupied and paid 
rent. 

Account has elsewhere been given of the land war, 
the boycott, the disturbances, and the coercion meas- 
ures which followed. The Land Act of 1881 gave 
little satisfaction in Ireland. Parnell and some of his 
followers were put in Kilmainham prison, for attempt- 
ing to bring about through intimidation the failure 
of its operation. In the next year an arrangement 
was made between Gladstone and himself, known as 
the Kilmainham Treaty, by which Parnell agreed to 
stay the agitation in Ireland in return for certain con- 
cessions. Scarcely had he been released when two of 
the important English officials in Ireland were mur- 
dered in broad daylight in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by 
some of the irreconcilable Fenians. Parnell repudi- 
ated the deed, offering to resign his leadership of the 
Home Rule party, but Gladstone refused to blame 
him; one of the severest of all the coercion acts was 



248 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

passed, however, and England made no more conces- 
sions for a while. Ireland was ruled now with an iron 
hand. The extreme Fenians strove to create terror in 
England, to set London afire some windy night, to 
blow up with dynamite the Houses of Parliament and 
the Tower of London. Parnell severed all connec- 
tion with them. 

Meanwhile his popularity and power increased in 
Ireland, and he was all the time more hated and feared 
in the Commons. He held together the members of 
his party as they had never been held before. His 
power was increased as a result of the Electoral 
Reform Law of 1884, by which the franchise was 
extended to householders and lodgers in Ireland as 
well as in England, for the electorate was largely 
increased, and the new voters supported the policy of 
Parnell. In the general election of 1885 out of a total 
Irish representation of one hundred and three, eighty- 
five members were elected on strict pledge to follow his 
lead. 

During this time Gladstone, leader of the Liberal 
Party in England, had gradually been won over to the 
view that greater concessions must be made to the 
Irish. He had already begun land legislation, and 
he favored land purchase, though this was taken up by 
the Conservatives and carried still further. He 
thought it necessary to satisfy more completely the 
desires of the Irish, if the peace and good order of 
Ireland were ever to be secured. In the election of 
1885, in which Parnell 1 secured such a notable triumph, 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 249 

and in which the great majority of the Irish made it 
clear that they wanted Home Rule and approved their 
leader's methods in trying to get it, Gladstone took 
care, as was his wont, not to commit himself very 
definitely, though he declared that whatever was done 
for Ireland, the unity of the Empire must be pre- 
served. In this election the Liberals triumphed, and 
soon after it was announced that Gladstone was pre- 
pared to support a measure for Home Rule. When 
he formed his third ministry now, some of his associ- 
ates dropped away from him, resolved to oppose such 
a step. This was the time when Lord Randolph 
Churchill fomented and led opposition in Ulster, with 
results so profoundly important later on. It was at 
this time also that the term "Unionist" took its place 
in political usage. 

In April, 1886, an Irish Government Bill was 
brought in. It provided for the establishment of an 
Irish parliament, which might impose taxes and legis- 
late for Ireland, though certain powers were with- 
held from it, especially the levying of customs and 
excise. The lord lieutenant was to be appointed by 
the crown as before. Ireland was to contribute one- 
fifteenth of the Imperial expenses. The unity of the 
Empire was to be maintained, with the Parliament of 
the United Kingdom legislating upon matters of 
general concern. In this parliament Ireland was no 
longer to have representation, a feature of the 
bill widely criticised, concerning which Gladstone 
admitted that much might be said contrary. In draw- 



250 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ing up this measure Parnell was constantly consulted, 
and though not content with all the provisions, pro- 
claimed himself satisfied in the main. 

A memorable contest followed. The Conserva- 
tives, assisted now by prominent Liberals who had left 
the party on the Home Rule issue, and were opposing 
it as Liberal Unionists, stirred the country to its 
depth. All of Tory prejudice and conservative prin- 
ciple, all the dislike of Irishmen as inferior and law- 
less people, all the bitterness engendered by the vio- 
lence and ugliness of Parnell's parliamentary tactics, 
and all the memories of Irish crime, the memories of 
Phoenix Park and the murdered officials, and the fear 
that Home Rule would mean abandoning loyal 
Protestant Ulster to a hostile Catholic Ireland, were 
aroused and rallied by Lord Salisbury, Joseph 
Chamberlain, Lord Hartington, and even the aged 
John Bright. Against these forces were marshalled 
the growing liberalism of England and something of 
the great democratic feeling that was beginning to 
arise from the widened electorate, together with a 
belief that the only alternative to Home Rule and 
satisfying the Irish was perpetual coerci'on, which 
might succeed easily enough, but which was repug- 
nant to the better feelings of the new England. 

This was the triumphant period of Parnell's life. 
At last had an Irishman persuaded and compelled the 
British political leader to take up Ireland's cause, and 
there seemed some chance that the wishes of Ireland 
might now be fulfilled. But it was not to be. In a 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 251 

crowded and breathless House Gladstone made a 
memorable speech; but on second reading the Home 
Rule bill was defeated, a strong body of Liberals 
voting with the Opposition. Parliament was dis- 
solved, and Gladstone appealed to the country. The 
general election was marked by intense bitterness in 
Great Britain, and by violence and loss of life in Ire- 
land. The result was the definitive defeat of Glad- 
stone's first attempt to give Ireland Home Rule. The 
Conservatives triumphed, and Lord Salisbury began 
his second administration. 

Home Rule had been defeated, but from 1886 on it 
was destined to be one of the largest issues in the 
politics of Great Britain. In Ireland violence and 
agrarian disorder continued, and in 1887, after a long 
series of acts to suspend the habeas corpus and to deal 
with outrages and crime, a perpetual coercion act 
was introduced, which is still in force. It was now 
that the London Times published its celebrated articles 
"Parnellism and Crime," in which the Irish leader was 
charged with violence and intimidation, and produced 
letters, said to be in Parnell's handwriting, which 
seemed to connect him with the murders in Phoenix 
Park. In the investigation which followed, these let- 
ters were proved to be forgeries, and in the triumph of 
the moment, the Irish chieftain reached the height of 
his career. But a year later, in 1890, he was named 
as co-respondent in a divorce suit brought by a Cap- 
tain O'Shea. And now, as the Liberal Party in 
England had been split in the struggle about the 



252 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

government of Ireland, so was the Irish Nationalist 
Party, which followed Parnell with such devotion, 
broken to pieces. A minority stayed with him, but 
the priests fell away and with them went most of the 
Irish members. In England puritan and non-con- 
formist feeling ran strongly, and presently Gladstone 
left him to his fate. He now became an extremist, 
and advocated separation from England. In 1891 he 
died, crushed with disaster and burden. For a while 
the Nationalist Party was divided and impotent: the 
majority had chosen Justin McCarthy as leader; those 
faithful to Parnell followed John Redmond. In 
course of time the division was closed, and Redmond 
became the successor of Parnell as leader of the united 
Nationalist Party. 

During the Salisbury ministry Ireland was gov- 
erned firmly, while the Conservatives applied what was 
now their favorite device in Irish matters, the improve- 
ment of the condition of the peasant through assisting 
him to purchase the land. In the general election 
which came at the end of this administration, the 
Liberals under Gladstone proposed a number of 
reforms, but made Home Rule again the great issue. 
The Conservatives opposed it, advocating the exten- 
sion of land purchase and the putting of local govern- 
ment to some extent in the hands of the Irish people. 
In England the Conservatives triumphed, but in the 
United Kingdom Gladstone obtained a majority of 
members, something veiy significant for the future. 
Since he favored Home Rule he could have the sup- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 253 

port of the eighty-one Irish Nationalists, and so he 
would have a majority of forty in the Commons. In 
the course of years later on, sometimes the Liberals 
had a majority of their own, sometimes they had it 
only with the Irish Nationalist votes. The alliance 
was to be most important. With Irish votes the 
Liberals were to carry some very momentous meas- 
ures, and even to change the constitution of the King- 
dom itself; in return they were to pass for the 
Nationalists a statute of Home Rule. 

But such was not now the result. In 1893 Glad- 
stone introduced the second Home Rule Bill. Again 
there was to be an Irish legislature to impose taxes and 
make laws for Ireland, with certain reservations as to 
religion and customs-duties and various matters. For 
the minority, especially in Ulster, there were more 
elaborate safeguards than before. But substantially 
Irish legislation and administration were to be con- 
trolled by the Irish people. The question of Irish 
representation at Westminster was a difficult one, 
as it had been, and afterwards was. If Irish mem- 
bers were excluded and revenue exacted by London, 
then there was taxation without representation. If 
they were admitted, then Irish members would be al- 
lowed to take part in British affairs, while the people 
of Britain would be excluded from the like in Ire- 
land. There was a third device, and this was what 
Gladstone proposed, that Irish representatives — 
eighty was the number suggested — should be admitted 
to the parliament at Westminster, but allowed to vote 



254 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

only on Irish matters and matters of general concern, 
though this provision was changed in the contest en- 
suing. Again there was the greatest bitterness in 
England, while Redmond avowed that the bill as it 
was would not satisfy the aspirations of Ireland. It 
passed the Commons, some of the members voting for 
it assured that it would be denied by the Lords. And 
so it was, for on the second reading the Lords re- 
jected it, 419 to 41. Actually this crushing defeat 
brought the matter to an end for twenty years. Glad- 
stone, who had been the great champion of Home 
Rule in England, like John Stuart Mill with the 
cause of woman's suffrage, but with far greater po- 
litical power, was now passing from public life. 
When the issue again assumed prominence new states- 
men had come forward. 

In the long interval which followed, Ireland was 
more peaceful and quiet than for a long time. Politi- 
cal activity waned. The purchase of land by the gov- 
ernment for the Irish people, and the splendid work 
of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society largely, 
occupied men's minds; and steady economic better- 
ment absorbed the attention of most of the people. 
It began to seem that Lord Salisbury was right when 
he declared that strict government consistently ap- 
plied for twenty years would make an Ireland fit to 
receive the gifts which England might deem well to 
confer. For a while there had been stern rule, and 
then wise and sympathetic government, and all the 
time greater and greater assistance to Irishmen to 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 255 

get their own farms and make a decent and comfort- 
able living. With Ireland quiet and absorbed in so- 
cial and economic changes, and with great issues de- 
veloping in the world outside, attention was taken 
from Home Rule, and the question seemed to grow 
less important. But it lived on in the hearts of Irish- 
men in America, who would not be reconciled with 
England, and it continued to be the principal aim of 
the Irish Nationalist Party, however hopeless their 
efforts might seem. As the years went on John 
Redmond was more conservative, and more willing 
to consider the problem from the point of view of 
Great Britain as well as of Ireland. And so time 
passed. The Victorian era came to an end, and the 
twentieth century began with awful and mighty prob- 
lems slowly emerging from the future. 

Shortly after Gladstone's retirement the Conserva- 
tives had come into power, and they held it for a 
decade; but in 1905 a Liberal cabinet was formed, 
and in the elections of the year following they secured 
an overwhelming majority. A period of legislative 
reform and revolution began then. All sorts of lib- 
eral and radical measures were proposed and under- 
taken. But the House of Lords still remained a 
stronghold of conservative opposition, and much of 
the Liberal program was there defeated. In 1909 
Mr. Asquith became prime minister, and Mr. Lloyd 
George chancellor of the exchequer. They desired to 
bring about certain social and industrial legislation, 
in accordance with the best liberal and progressive 



256 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

thought of the time, which would require consider- 
able money. This revenue they proposed to obtain 
in part from new taxes upon the possessions of the 
wealthy, which the conservative owners of wealth re- 
garded as unlawful and as striking at the security of 
property. Accordingly when the measure had passed 
the Commons, it was rejected by the Lords. There 
followed a memorable struggle over the veto power 
of the upper House. Now at last was the oppor- 
tunity of the Irish Nationalist Party; for Liberal 
strength was diminished, and the Liberal leaders had 
need of all the allies they could obtain. With the 
support of the Irish members they could be certain, 
perhaps, of controlling the Commons. For this sup- 
port, as is the way of politics, they must pay and 
were willing to pay. Moreover, Home Rule for Ire- 
land had long been one of their principles ; it now be- 
came again one of their projects of reform. If the 
Irish members would support them in the great trial 
to come, after the victory Ireland's cause would be 
taken up. Redmond and his followers were more will- 
ing to do this, since it was evident that if they assisted 
in taking from the House of Lords the veto which 
had once defeated Home Rule, and which would most 
probably be employed again for that purpose, they 
would have the better chance of getting Home Rule 
when their Liberal allies undertook to support it. So 
Home Rule became an issue again. 

The Liberals, supported by Labor and the Irish 
Nationalists, maintained their majority after the elec- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 257 

tions of 1910 and 1911, and were presently able to 
force through both Houses the well-known Parlia- 
ment Bill of 1911, by the terms of which a measure 
passed by the Commons after a while becomes a law 
despite any veto of the Lords. Thus was one of the 
important constitutional changes in the history of 
England brought to pass. The way was now open 
for further alterations, and Home Rule was taken 
up a third time. 

The struggle which followed will be remembered 
by most people who had interest in it. There was 
again powerful opposition in England. But this 
time it was evident that the measure could be carried. 
The Irish members had supported the Asquith minis- 
try in the bitter conflict of the two years preceding, 
and now the Liberals would pay their debt. The 
coalition had an undoubted majority in the Commons. 
The opposition of the Lords would not avail as it had 
in Gladstone's time, for according to the Parliament 
Act, if any measure were passed in three successive 
sessions by the Commons and in the course of two 
years, then it would become a law despite the veto of 
the Peers. Never had Home Rule seemed so cer- 
tain. 

It was because of the very immanency of Nation- 
alist and Liberal success that another factor now be- 
came far more important than ever it had been before. 
The Protestants of north Ireland in Ulster had taken 
an important part in the first Home Rule struggle. 
Now all their fears were awakened as they had not 



258 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

been before, and their opposition was roused to tre- 
mendous proportions, and then taken up by the 
Unionists in Great Britain. In Ulster passion was 
kindled into a flame. Great demonstrations were 
made. The leader was Sir Edward Carson, who has 
been denounced as a crafty politician, as insincere, and 
as serving his own interests in the dissensions of his 
country, but who was undeniably a man of great force 
and strength of character, and who speedily caught 
the imagination of the stern Protestants of the north. 
In 1912 the third Home Rule Bill was introduced 
into the House of Commons. As in the preceding 
Bills there was to be an Irish parliament, consisting 
of two Houses, which should control the legislation 
and administration of affairs which were purely Irish. 
It resembled the second Home Rule Bill in its later 
stages, in that Ireland was to be represented in the 
Imperial parliament, the representation now being 
fixed at forty-two members. It was specially stated 
that notwithstanding the establishment of an Irish 
parliament, the supreme power and authority of the 
parliament of the United Kingdom should remain un- 
diminished over all matters and persons in Ireland. 
The assembly in Dublin might make laws for the 
peace, order, and good government of Ireland, but 
certain things were reserved exclusively for the Im- 
perial parliament, such as the crown, war, peace, the 
army, the navy, and important financial matters, such 
as land purchase, old age pensions, and customs, while 
the Irish parliament was expressly forbidden to make 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 259 

any law for endowing a particular religion, or giving 
preference because of religious training or belief. 
Executive power would remain in the hands of the 
sovereign or his lord lieutenant. The lord lieutenant, 
representing the king, was to be advised by an "Exec- 
utive Committee" as, in theory, the king was by the 
cabinet, this Committee to be composed of the heads 
of the Irish departments, formed in the manner of 
the British cabinet, and dependent upon support of a 
majority in the Irish House of Commons. The fi- 
nancial arrangement was difficult to make, as usual, 
but it provided that expenses were to be borne partly 
by the Irish and partly by the Imperial exchequer. 
Mr. Redmond declared in the Commons, on behalf of 
the Irish Party and its supporters, "that we accept 
this Bill in absolute good faith as a settlement of the 
interminable quarrel between the two countries." 3 
It was easily carried through the Commons, passing 
second and third readings by huge majorities, but 
when taken up to the Lords in January, 1913, a second 
reading was refused by a majority very much greater. 
Brought to bay, nevertheless, the Unionists of Ul- 
ster declared that as loyal subjects of the Empire, and 
faithful adherents to the Act of Union, they relied 
upon the Union for protection against their enemies, 
who had usually been cold and often hostile to the 
British government, and to whom now the Home Rule 
Bill proposed to hand them over. Was it the inten- 
tion of the majority of the people of England and 

3 Quoted in The ABC Home Rule Handbook, p. 106. 



260 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Scotland thus to cast them aside? Had the British 
people given to the present ministry any mandate for 
such a thing? It was not possible to believe that this 
was so, but if it were, one could not believe that the 
electorate understood what was about to be done. 
Certainly there was not justice in casting them out. 
Ireland was best off in its present union with Great 
Britain, but if Celtic Ireland did not believe that was 
so, and desired the severing of the tie, such was not 
the case with them. The rest of Ireland might go, 
but not they. If the Home Rule Bill became law, 
they would refuse to accept it. Whatever else was 
done, they were going to maintain their connection 
with their fellows in race and religion across the Irish 
Sea. 

The Protestants of Ulster were not making mere 
threats. A strong Unionist organization had been 
built up. In August, 1912, great numbers of people 
pledged themselves in a Covenant, like their ances- 
tors had done once in a dark crisis of their nation and 
faith, to resist Home Rule and refuse to accept it: 

We, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal 
subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V, humbly 
relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and 
trial confidently trusted, 

Do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant throughout 
this our time of threatened calamity to stand by one an- 
other in defending for ourselves and our children our cher- 
ished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, 
and in using all means which may be^found necessary to'de- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 261 

feat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parlia- 
ment in Ireland. 

Great meetings were held in the midst of stern re- 
ligious fervor; and by the end of the year 100,000 
Ulster Volunteers had enrolled themselves in a mili- 
tary body, and were drilling and practicing with arms, 
and ready to resist the enemy, as once the men of Lon- 
donderry and Enniskillen had resisted King James. 
Memories of the age of Cromwell and of William 
were recalled. Often Kipling's words were repeated : 

The dark eleventh hour 

Draws on and sees us sold 
To every evil power 

We fought against of old. 

North Ireland was stirred as it had not been for a 
hundred years. All through July and August Sir 
Edward Carson had gone through Ulster declaring 
that if Home Rule were granted, then Ulster would 
set up a government of its own, and refuse to pay the 
taxes of the parliament in Dublin. To the Nation- 
alists all this seemed blind bigotry, mistaken fanati- 
cism and opposition, and to the Liberals it seemed 
partly the result of shrewd manipulation by their po- 
litical opponents of old prejudice and hatred, done 
so as to hinder Home Rule when all other devices had 
failed; but whatever was thought about it, there was 
little doubt concerning the determination of the ma- 
jority in Ulster. 



262 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

In England the Opposition called for a referen- 
dum, a general election on the issue of Home Rule, 
and declared that otherwise civil war was inevitable. 
In the 1913 session the Home Rule Bill again passed 
the Commons and was again rejected by the Lords. 
If it passed the Commons in the next session it would 
become a law. Not only was Ulster under arms and 
drilling now, but armed forces were being gathered by 
the Nationalists also. The government forbade the 
importation of arms, but little was accomplished 
thereby. In England there was much sympathy for 
Ulster, and a great many people felt that the Home 
Rule question was complicated with another difficult 
problem which had not been sufficiently thought of be- 
fore. Mr. Winston Churchill suggested, what Joseph 
Chamberlain had suggested in 1886, that the Irish 
question might be solved by some scheme of federa- 
tion, the dividing of Ireland, so as to leave Ulster to 
itself, and the dividing of the remainder of the British 
Isles into such parts as seemed proper. The cabinet, 
however, was pledged to the Nationalists to carry the 
Home Rule Bill, and the idea of federalism was for 
the future rather than the present. But because of 
much pressure and exhortation to reconsider, Mr. As- 
quith in March, 1914, proposed to parliament a scheme 
whereby the Unionist counties of Ulster might, if they 
desired, be excluded from the operation of Home Rule 
for the space of six years after the passing of the bill. 
Redmond now, with the wisdom of a statesman de- 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 263 

clared earnestly that the Irish Nationalists would do 
all they could to satisfy Ulster. In May the bill 
passed the Commons for the third time, and now after 
a brief interval it would be law. At last, except for 
Ulster, the Nationalist triumph was complete. 

But actually the situation became more threaten- 
ing every moment. It was evident that Ulster would 
oppose the law with armed resistance, and it was also 
very evident that strong sentiment in England would 
be against using the armed forces of the Empire to 
coerce the men of Ulster into submission. "Help me 
keep the flag!" was the legend under a picture of Ul- 
ster sore beset with foes; and a gentler appeal con- 
tained the plaintive words of one who long ago had 
said: "Intreat me not to leave thee." Nationalist 
Ireland, flushed with the victory at last come to its 
cause, was ill-disposed to brook failure through Ulster 
at this moment. The Nationalists were by no means 
willing that Home Rule be given to them with the 
exclusion of Ulster, and while it was doubtful whether 
they could unaided coerce the inhabitants of the north, 
it was not certain that they would not try, since they 
readily asserted that there could not be successful 
Home Rule if one of the most prosperous parts of the 
island were allowed to remain outside of it. Accord- 
ingly, as spring went on into summer, there seemed the 
dread prospect of civil war in the island. Statesmen 
knew, perhaps, then, what all know now, that affairs 
in Europe were such that the British Empire had need 



264 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of complete loyalty and union to pass safely through 
the troubles which might arise; and it is certain that 
after the assassination of the Archduke at Sarajevo 
the German government counted not a little upon the 
weakness of Great Britain because of the ominous sit- 
uation in Ireland. But all attempts at an under- 
standing were in vain. Ulster would make no com- 
promise; 200,000 people had taken the Covenant; 
Nationalist forces were drilling throughout the island 
to pit themselves against the 30,000 Ulster Volun- 
teers well equipped with arms who went grimly on 
with their preparations. 

A last effort was made for a settlement. The 
leaders of both parties were summoned to meet in con- 
ference at the king's residence, Buckingham Palace, 
in the hope that some agreement might be reached. 
It was in a solemn time that this meeting was called. 
The cloud risen on the horizon of Europe, for a while 
less than a man's hand, now loomed vast and terrific. 
Must there be an Irish civil war at such a moment? 
It was all-important in this dread hour that every 
quarrel should cease. Yet the conference failed alto- 
gether: the two sides could reach no agreement and 
would not make any concession. Then the mighty 
cataclysm, which had so often before been foretold to 
Europe, and so often avoided, until the small and un- 
seeing believed that never it would come, suddenly 
descended like a whirlwind. And then at last the peo- 
ple of the United Kingdom, as is their wont, hushed 
all domestic dissensions, and turned to the enemy 



THE STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 265 

united. At the beginning of August the Home Rule 
question and that other which had been so perplexing, 
the feminist suffragette movement, were dropped out 
of sight for a while, and hid by the struggle of nations. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 

The British Empire has been built up on Home Rule. You 
are now asked to complete the edifice and to give to Ireland 
the blessing of Self-Government which has made the whole 
Empire contented, prosperous and loyal. 

Home Rule Vs Answered (Liberal Publication 
Department, 1913), p. 62. 

Are we now, after seven centuries of battling against Eng- 
land, to become loyal and submissive to her rule . . . be- 
cause we have been thrown a crust from the Imperial table? 
. . . Ireland is no colony of yesterday like Canada or Aus- 
tralia, but an ancient nation, and no crippled measure of 
Home Rule will satisfy its national aspirations. 

Tipperary Star, May 25, 1912. 

IN this chapter I purpose to sum up the arguments 
used in the Home Rule struggle, which in one 
form or another have appeared many different times, 
though here they are stated as given by one side or the 
other in the years just prior to the war. In expound- 
ing them it is necessary to deal with many matters 
highly controversial, with statements exaggerated, 
spoken in bitterness and passion, many of them greatly 
offensive to one side or the other, often seeming cruel 
and untrue. In this chapter I hold no brief. The 

266 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 267 

arguments may be found by anyone who cares to 
search in the newspapers and parliamentary debates, 
and especially in the vast number of fugitive pam- 
phlets and leaflets published so profusely in the Brit- 
ish Isles during the controversy just before the war. 
I neither defend nor vouch for the truth. It is my 
purpose to expound the things which were said, which 
the contestants desired men to believe. Many of the 
sayings are true, and the reader himself may judge; 
but often they are very doubtful, and are merely what 
men would have liked to maintain. Such controver- 
sial literature is familiar to students. Similar books 
and pamphlets and leaflets appeared in profusion in 
England during the tariff controversy and especially 
in the struggle for the franchise for women ; and if this 
be more an English than an American custom, yet we 
have often seen the like in American political cam- 
paigns. 

Those who favored Home Rule wished men and 
women to know the sins committed by England in 
centuries past, and hearken to appeals for amendment. 
They told again and again of old misery and wrong, 
of the long years passed without reform, of what 
Irishmen had striven for, and what Englishmen in the 
latest age had done in atonement. Declaring what 
was still to be done, they appealed to all that was 
wisest, most generous, and most humane in their age. 
They asked for Home Rule because they believed it 
was just, and best for Ireland and England and the 
world. 



268 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

They said that Home Rule for Ireland was now op- 
posed by the Tories, who had always hindered con- 
structive measures in England, from the reform of the 
electoral laws to the endeavors of Mr. Lloyd George. 
Particularly was this true of the Lords: how often 
had they not rejected or cut down reforms both for 
Britain and Ireland! Here was the same old stupid 
game so often played by aristocracy and rigid con- 
servatives. Actually the great British democracy 
ought to favor the Irish Nationalist movement : often 
the Nationalists had helped to put through the British 
parliament legislation desired by the British people: 
aristocracy had no part in their work. The Irish had 
been pioneers in democratic representation, in paying 
their members in the House of Commons, in land re- 
form, in the housing of working classes. To assist 
Home Rule was to make alliance with one of the 
greatest democratic forces in the British Isles. 

It was true that much had been done of late, and 
done by the Conservative Party, to better the condition 
of the Irish and give them a better government, but 
much more remained. Their government was such as 
a free people never would have. It was not really 
the British system of a cabinet responsible to repre- 
sentatives of the people. Irishmen had no legislature 
of their own. Their executive was not responsible to 
them; but he controlled the armed forces, arfd ap- 
pointed the judges and officers of the police. The 
laws for Ireland were made far away, in an assembly 
in which they had part, to be sure, but which they 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 2G9 

could not control. Often this government was well 
administered, but it was not self-government, not a 
government by the people. Usually this system was 
not only irritating to the Irish, but also extravagant 
and deficient. There was much overlapping and 
waste, and there was also discrimination against the 
Celtic Irish in making appointments to government 
positions. The cost of administration Was more than 
twice as much for each inhabitant in Ireland as for 
people in England and Wales. 

It was a consequence of the present system that 
often Ireland could get no hearing for that which she 
needed. In the House of Commons her members 
made up less than a sixth of the total number. Not 
only could measures desired by most of the Irish fail 
because opposed by English, Scottish, or Welsh mem- 
bers, who could yet force upon Ireland measures re- 
pugnant, but it was very difficult for the Imperial par- 
liament, so great was the pressure of business, to at- 
tend to Irish matters at all. There were many things, 
entirely non-controversial and in themselves not ob- 
jectionable, of much local importance in Ireland, 
about which nothing could be done until the parlia- 
ment at Westminster acted, and such legislation was 
frequently difficult to obtain and exceedingly expen- 
sive. Men said that a bill for the amalgamation of 
three Irish railways remained before parliament three 
sessions, and cost nearly £100,000. With an Irish 
parliament at Dublin, the thing might have been set- 
tled for a very small part of that cost. Under Home 



270 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Rule such a parliament could give proper attention to 
many matters now neglected, like Irish education, 
housing, poor-law administration, railways, harbors, 
and canals. An Irish parliament would reflect the 
ideas and the wishes of the Irish people, having better 
knowledge of their peculiar problems, and sufficient 
time to deal with them rightly. And above all, for the 
first time in a century Ireland would have a govern- 
ment satisfactory to the great majority of her people. 

These arguments and others made by advocates of 
Home Rule were given, of course, to win votes and 
support, but often they were told simply and fairly, 
by men who believed they were true. The Unionists 
also were strong in their faith, some with passionate 
sincerity and devotion, though frequently it seemed 
that they, like some anti-suffrage workers in England, 
were particularly bent upon making what they said 
appear plausible and attractive. 

They meant no injustice. It is well to recognize 
that in Great Britain by 1912 there were probably 
few, only such as were steeped in the strait old Tory- 
ism of the past, who wished Ireland to be held down 
or oppressed. With most people there was disposi- 
tion to confess wrongs and errors in the past, ascrib- 
ing them to an age fully gone, and desire now that 
fullest amends should be made, that Irishmen should 
be assisted to build up the prosperity of their country, 
and be as free as any of the inhabitants of the British 
Isles, and to hope that in time the old bitter memories 
might go, and Ireland become a willing member and 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 271 

a loyal partner in the empire in which she was in- 
eluded. But as for Home Rule, and the things neces- 
sarily involved or likely to follow, these Unionists 
said that there were certain factors in Ireland, refer- 
ring especially to Ulster, and also certain great facts 
of geography and international relations which states- 
men must consider and could not neglect. 

On this particular occasion they disliked the way 
the measure was brought forward and also some of the 
principles it contained. The crisis had come, they 
said, largely because of selfish considerations of party. 
The Liberals had attained such power because the 
people of Great Britain wanted certain social reforms. 
The tide had run very far, until finally came the act 
taking power from the House of Lords, leaving Mr. 
Asquith nearly supreme. But there had been a re- 
action, and his majority in Great Britain had dwin- 
dled, until only the support of Irish members made his 
position secure. His ministry now rested upon a 
coalition, of which the lesser, but indispensable, part 
was the Nationalist members of Ireland, so that actu- 
ally their leader, Mr. Redmond, was the ultimate dic- 
tator in the British Isles. Really the situation was 
one which British voters could see only with appre- 
hension: the Nationalist Party was financed by sup- 
porters in America and led by a group of Irish politi- 
cians who dominated Redmond; in turn he was the 
master of Mr. Asquith; the latter, whatever his real 
wishes, was compelled to support Home Rule. 

This Home Rule Bill had not been properly debated 



272 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

or considered; it was being forced through the Com- 
mons. Unionists declared that there was "no man- 
date for Home Rule." It was not certain that most 
of the British people were willing to grant it. A 
great many of the Liberal candidates had never dis- 
cussed the issue before election ; Mr. Asquith had not 
promised to bring it forward until the outcome of the 
election had shown him to be in Mr. Redmond's power. 
Now the Liberal government was trying to get the 
bill through without seeking the judgment of the 
people. There ought to be a general election on this 
question. In 1913, when Mr. Asquith was speaking 
about a bill to give votes to women, he said that par- 
liament ought to hesitate to take a step so unprece- 
dented without "a full and assured conviction that it 
has behind it in taking that step the deliberate and 
considered sanction of the community"; * and he had 
said that such considerations applied to any constitu- 
tional change. Where was any deliberate and con- 
sidered sanction for Home Rule? 

Many grave objections were made to parts of the 
law proposed, particularly with respect to parliamen- 
tary representation, delegated powers, the post, the 
judiciary, the constabulary, things about which in all 
constitutional change there can be much question. It 
was said especially that considerations of finance made 
the present scheme objectionable or doomed it to 
failure. Some writers declared that if Home Rule 
were established, Britain must contribute to Ireland 

i Speech in the House of Commons, May 6, 1913. 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 273 

every year £6,500,000, and most critics agreed that 
the annual contribution for expenditures strictly Irish 
would certainly be £2,000,000. But with great in- 
sistence it was answered that Home Rule would not 
be expensive. It would cost the British workingman 
to be sure, as was so often proclaimed, but it would 
be "something between a farthing a month and a 
farthing a year." For three years the British ex- 
chequer would contribute to Ireland £500,000, after 
which the sum would be gradually diminished. They 
said it should be remembered, however, that during 
the nineteenth century the Imperial exchequer had 
received in taxes from Ireland £300,000,000 which 
were not spent in the island : but these figures repeat- 
edly given were as often disputed by the other side, 
and the best authorities were disposed to regard the 
calculation as exceedingly doubtful. As it was now, 
the maintenance of the Irish police and excessive ad- 
ministrative expense made it necessary for Britain 
to give increasing amounts of money to Ireland every 
year. Under Home Rule there would be greater fru- 
gality, and the deficit might diminish and disappear, 
so that Ireland would actually be able to contribute 
to the cost of Imperial administration. Unionist ad- 
vocates scoffed at this, saying that with Home Rule 
there was every reason to expect a riot of graft and 
expenses. 

Unionists argued that the Irish were not suffering 
now from the evils which had once oppressed them. 
Already Ireland governed herself. She had now 



274 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 






precisely the same power to manage her own affairs 
that England, Scotland, and Wales enjoyed. Irish 
urban and rural district councils, county councils, and 
boards of guardians were elected by the people ; Irish 
elementary and technical education, fisheries, agricul- 
ture, congested districts, and old age pensions were 
administered by Irish committees. As to economic 
betterment, restoration of well-being for the mass of 
the people had been largely accomplished already 
through the aid of the British government, which had 
appropriated huge sums of money for the purchase 
of land by the Irish peasants, to whom money was 
loaned for long periods at low rate of interest. A 
leaflet declared that now the Irish farmer could bor- 
row money from the state on easy terms, and buy his 
farm paying off the price in installments lower than 
his rent had been; where he continued to rent, the 
amount was fixed by the state and could not be raised 
by the landlord; that the tenant now could not be 
turned out of his farm so long as the rent was regu- 
larly paid ; that the state gave him help to improve his 
crops and the breed of his stock ; that he could obtain a 
holding large enough for his family; that the state 
gave assistance with stock and new buildings, and even 
a cottage at very low rent. It was not the Irish, said 
this writer, who needed further assistance; let the 
same kind of help be given to the English people. 
And it was further said that the British government 
had already expended for land purchase £78,000,000, 
and would probably have to expend £100,000,000 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 275 

more. Under Home Rule was it certain that a par- 
liament elected by debtor peasants could be depended 
on to pay back the money advanced? 

Grave objections were alleged with respect to the 
interests of the Irish people themselves. It was 
doubtful whether they needed more self-government, 
and very doubtful whether most of them really desired 
it. There was no question that the majority of large 
traders and merchants, the business and professional 
classes, the manufacturers and bankers opposed it. 
Home Rule, largely supported by money from the 
United States, was most desired by the politicians; 
they were the ones who insistently urged it, since they 
hoped to rule Ireland after the measure was passed. 
One writer asserted that except for agitators there 
would be no unrest and no demand for Home Rule. 
From the condition of some places now governed by 
Irishmen it was doubtful whether the mass of the 
people were able properly to manage their public 
affairs. The civil government of Dublin was a 
mockery, even to its own people. If it was true that 
the Irish people were thus incapable, then Irish ad- 
ministration, when no longer kept in control from 
England, would be taken over by the politicians who 
ruled the Ancient Order of Hibernians and other or- 
ganizations like it. 

To all this the answer was that most of the Irish 
people had shown that they did earnestly desire Home 
Rule. Out of 101 constituencies in which members 
were elected by popular franchise, 80 had invariably 



276 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

sent Home Rule representatives to the House of Com- 
mons, while Unionists had been regularly elected in 
10. Ever since 1885, when a wide electorate first 
used the franchise in Ireland, four-fifths of the repre- 
sentation had been pledged to Home Rule, and there 
were not many constituencies in which there had been 
any wavering since that time. In 1913 a colored 
poster was circulated: "Does Ireland want Home 
Rule?" It was a map showing that all of Connaught 
and all of Munster returned members pledged to the 
demand, that in Leinster the only ones opposed to it 
represented the University of Dublin, and that even 
for Ulster, Nationalist members represented half of 
the province. Altogether Ireland returned only 18 
Unionist members. 

As to Irish incapacity for self-government, with 
the danger of them falling under the domination of 
political leaders who would use them as they pleased, 
so that things would be worse than before, it was well 
to recall that Ireland's last opportunity to govern 
herself, in part at least, through her own representa- 
tives, was the period of Grattan's parliament: not a 
few historians had borne witness to the prosperity and 
progress of that time. But there was a more recent 
illustration that was better. In 1885 Lord Salisbury 
declared that to give the Irish control of their local 
government would be more dangerous than giving 
Home Rule. But he himself was at the head of a 
ministry which did grant it in the Irish County Coun- 
cils Act of 1898. It was generally agreed that local 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 277 

government had been well administered in Ireland 
since that time. But in any event there was no just 
reason for thinking that Irishmen were politically 
deficient. 

It was constantly urged as an objection that under 
the politicians and the leaders of the Irish organiza- 
tions conditions would be worse than under a govern- 
ment supervised by British authority. The power 
behind the Nationalist Party was the Ancient Order 
of Hibernians or "Molly Maguires," who controlled 
the parts of the United Irish League, who were feared 
and detested by Protestants and Unionists, and also 
by many respectable Catholics in Ireland. Cardinal 
Logue once called them "a cruel tyranny, and an 
organized system of blackguardism"; while an Irish 
newspaper declared that they were steeped in out- 
rage and crime, and would, if they had power, "make 
this country a hell." 2 One of the Unionist leaflets as- 
serted that Home Rule really meant the rule of the 
Ancient Order. 

The methods employed to extend and uphold the 
greatness of these bodies would be the using of un- 
seen power, coercion by boycott, intimidation, and 
destruction of property. Everyone lamented the old 
oppression and misrule in the island, but it was neces- 
sary to admit that they had left an evil heritage of 
disorder and crime. Doubtless it was true that crime 
was diminishing, but still there were numerous in- 

2 Leaflet: The Ancient Order of Hibernians (Ulster Unionist Coun- 
cil) ; Cork Free Press, September 13, 1910, 



278 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

stances of boycotting, of farms ravaged, of cattle 
injured, of machinery and crops destroyed. In the 
Unionist campaign wide circulation was given to The 
Boycotting of Richard Kingston — which the Liberals 
explained in satisfactory manner — and to the story 
of the prolonged defiance of law in the case of 
"Walsh's Fort." Tales were told of brutal murder, 
of cruel revenge, of moonlighting, hayburning, arson. 
It was said also that Irish conditions were such, and 
such was the character of magistrates in Ireland, that 
either criminals were not prosecuted, or the trials re- 
sulted in acquittal on the intervention of the secret 
societies. Could it be thought that improvement 
would come with Home Rule? When the police and 
part of the judiciary controlled now from London 
were delivered to the Irish themselves, more probably 
the result would be that politicians could the better 
control their followers and crush those who tried to 
oppose them. 

Even if it were right to give Irish Nationalists over 
to rule of this sort, ought the loyalists to be abandoned 
to such fate? If the Unionists would be worse off 
under Home Rule, then the change would be detri- 
mental to one-third of the entire population of the 
island, men and women who claimed as their birth- 
right the privileges of free British citizens. Shame 
on England, if they were deserted! Most of them, 
concentrated in northeastern Ulster, might then look 
for grievous economic discrimination; but in all parts 
of Ireland the minority might expect gradually to see 






ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 279 

the schools sectarian and their children deprived of 
facilities for education, the courts failing to do them 
justice, the police not giving protection, and them- 
selves for the most part excluded from public office. 

Above all there was a thing to be feared by Prot- 
estant Unionists, and that was the probability that 
under Home Rule the overwhelming majority of 
Catholic voters would gradually but surely put much 
of the government in the hands of the church. The 
present power of the priests was well known ; but they 
were eagerly awaiting wider opportunity to come. In 
191*2, it was said, the Reverend Gerald O'Nolan de- 
clared : 

We shall have a free hand in the future. Let us use it 
well. This is a Catholic country, and if we do not govern 
it on Catholic lines, according to Catholic ideals, and to safe- 
guard Catholic interests, it will be all the worse for the coun- 
try and all the worse for us. Here it is that religion and 
nationality meet, and may, and should, go hand-in-hand. 3 

The priests now controlled the devout and warm- 
hearted Irish people, easily stirred to passionate 
hatred of the Protestant faith. Intolerance and out- 
rage were common. Writers asserted that the opera- 
tion of the decree Ne Terrier e denied the validity of 
marriage not performed by Catholic clergy, thus plac- 
ing it as regards Catholics beyond the regulation of 
the civil authorities and entirely in the hands of the 
church ; and that the decree Motu Proprio tended with 

s Belfast Irish News, December 2, 1912. 



280 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

respect to Catholics to put ecclesiastics where they 
had been in the Middle Ages, beyond the jurisdiction 
of lay tribunals. Now if such were the case at pres- 
ent, how much greater would be the power of the 
Church when the government of Ireland was entirely 
controlled by Roman Catholics! That was why the 
Irish Protestants so earnestly entreated that they be 
not abandoned by England. 

To all this the Liberals made answer. There was 
no religious danger. Some advocates of Home Rule 
did indeed believe that for an interval Catholic ma- 
jorities influenced by the priests would be oppressive, 
but that matters would right themselves after a while. 
Others, however, were certain that Irish Catholics 
would not oppress Protestants if they could. They 
said that John Wesley had long ago noted the kindli- 
ness of peasants and priests. They quoted the his- 
torian Lecky : 

Amongst the Catholics, at any rate, religious intolerance 
has never been a prevailing vice ; and those who have studied 
closely the history and character of the Irish people can 
hardly fail to be struck with the deep respect for sincere re- 
ligion, in every form, which they have commonly evinced. 4 

There were at the present time eminent Protestants 
who declared they had always been treated fairly by 
Catholic neighbors, and that they did not fear a gov- 
ernment controlled by such men. It was well known 
that Catholic Irishmen had often followed Protestant 

4 Quoted by Jeremiah MacVeagh, Home Rule or Rome Rule (Lon- 
don, 1912), p. 12. 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 281 

leaders — everyone knew of Sir Horace Plunkett and 
Parnell. Much evidence was given to show that in 
Catholic districts Protestants were often elected to 
serve on the local governing bodies. Much more was 
given to show that intolerance and discrimination 
were mostly from Protestants: wherever Protestants 
were in minority they got more than their share of 
public appointments, but where Unionists were in 
greater number they did all they could to exclude 
Roman Catholics from influence and power. Gov- 
erning bodies in some Catholic districts employed 
about as many Protestants as Catholics; but in the 
Protestant corporation of Belfast less than one-fiftieth 
of the salaries went to Catholics, and no Romanist 
had ever been the lord mayor. The Home Rule 
Council declared that there was no religious intoler- 
ance in Ireland outside the Tory part of Ulster ; and 
one writer asked whether in view of all the facts that 
were given Catholics could not be trusted to deal 
fairly, indeed generously, with Protestants in Ireland. 
As to the priests, where self-government existed, 
their power was ever checked by public opinion. So 
it was in France, in Austria, in Italy, in Belgium, and 
even in Portugal and Spain. Catholics had the ma- 
jority in Bavaria and Baden, but they did not perse- 
cute any longer. Wherever there was a free parlia- 
ment religious persecution could not thrive, said one 
of the leaflets. Unionists proclaimed that Home 
Rule would mean Rome Rule, but it was very doubtful 
whether with self-government politics could be con- 



282 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

trolled in the interests of the church, or direction would 
come from Rome. Not often had the Pope inter- 
fered in Irish politics except at England's request, 
and Irish Catholics had not always obeyed him in po- 
litical matters. Cardinal Gonsalvi's acceptance once 
of the English government's scheme for the appoint- 
ment of Irish bishops was defeated by the Catholic 
laity headed by Daniel O'Connell, who said: "I 
would as soon receive my politics from Constantinople 
as from Rome." 5 And it was not forgotten that in 
1883 subscriptions for the testimonial to Parnell were 
collected in defiance of a papal rescript, which Na- 
tionalists then denounced as an unwarrantable inter- 
ference with their political rights. They had said 
that their religion was independent of England and 
their politics independent of Rome. 

But disregarding all these things, religious oppres- 
sion of the minority would be impossible. The Home 
Rule Bill dealt with this matter directly: 

In the exercise of their power to make laws under this act, 
the Irish Parliament shall not make a law so as either directly 
or indirectly to establish or endow any religion, or prohibit 
the free exercise thereof, or give a preference, privilege, or 
advantage, or impose any disability or disadvantage, on ac- 
count of religious belief or religious or ecclesiastical status, 
or make any religious belief or religious ceremony a condi- 
tion of the validity of any marriage. 

Thus there could be no religious intolerance on the, 

5 Quoted in Home Rule ?'s Answered, p. 52. 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 283 

part of an Irish government; it would never have 
power to set up a state religion, or discriminate against 
the adherents of other faiths. As for the papal de- 
crees so much talked about, they would have no force 
whatever so far as the law of the land was con- 
cerned. 

Unionists went much farther. They said that 
whatever the needs of Ireland were, and however suc- 
cessful Home Rule might be, even if the minority 
were not oppressed by its operation, yet there were 
reasons why it would probably be inconsistent with 
the interests of the people of Great Britain, perhaps 
greatly dangerous and detrimental. Home Rule 
meant the beginning of a disruption of a union which 
had been built up through many centuries, by a long 
succession of statesmen, to satisfy fundamental needs. 
It was proposed to give Home Rule now, but what 
Irishmen really wanted was complete separation, 
whenever that could be achieved. Irishmen were not 
loyal. The story once told by Sir Henry Lucy was 
widely retold, how in 1902 the Irish members had 
rejoiced in the House of Commons, with merry laugh- 
ter and ghoul-like ecstasy, when there was news of 
Methuen's defeat in the Boer War. There was many 
a colored cartoon of Redmond dancing with glee at the 
news. The British army had been referred to as the 
most degraded and immoral force in Europe. It was 
said that the disloyalty appeared particularly in the 
attitude of some Irishmen toward the Germans. In 
1909 the Kilkenny People said: "Should they land 



284 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

in Ireland, they will be received with willing hearts 
and strong hands." 6 

These disquieting things would not come to an end 
when Ireland got Home Rule, since it was complete 
independence and entire separation which she wanted. 
Words were recalled from the inscription upon the 
monument to Parnell unveiled in Dublin in 1911: 
"We have never attempted to fix the Ne plus ultra 
to the progress of Ireland's nationhood and we never 
shall." 7 It was widely repeated that in some of his 
American speeches Mr. Redmond seemed to look for- 
ward to the goal of national independence. It was 
not very clearly seen, perhaps, but Unionists did dis- 
cern something of a feeling that was growing, the 
desire for national individuality like that of Germany 
or France. An Irish newspaper had declared that 
it had nothing but loathing and contempt for the men 
who spoke so idly about "this Home Rule Bill uniting 
us in bonds of love and loyalty to the British Em- 
pire." Unionists said there was some truth in what 
John Bright had written long before, that if the Irish 
had their way they would join themselves to the 
United States. 

These forebodings might be of things which would 
not come to pass, but here was a matter of such vast 
and primary importance that Britain could never take 
any chance of their fulfillment. The geographical 

6 Kilkenny People, December 4, 1909. 

7 Leaflet: "Sinn Fein" and the Home Rule Bill (The Unionist Asso- 
ciations of Ireland). 

s Tipperary Star, May 25, 1912. 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 285 

position of Ireland was such that in any great con- 
test, if Ireland were hostile or in the enemy's hands, 
nay, if Ireland were not part of the British scheme 
of defence, then Britain, it might be, was doomed. 
The National Union of Conservative and Constitu- 
tional Associations declared that Home Rule involved 
the erection of a hostile state only sixty miles from 
England, which would be a perpetual source of alarm 
in the event of continental complications, and at the 
worst it might set up an enemy in the rear of Great 
Britain. This would involve the weakening of British 
defensive power, and necessarily entail an increase in 
the British army and the maintaining of a powerful 
fleet to watch the Irish coast. It was also said that 
in a military and naval sense the two countries were 
one area of operations and supply, and in the present 
situation of European affairs, the dissolution of the 
Union might bring about strategic consequences and 
disasters not to be estimated. It was all very well 
for the Liberals to say, as they did so insistently, that 
in other years it had been the practice of the British 
Empire to grant self-government to the great colonies, 
such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa, that 
there had always been good results from this, and if 
the same were done for Ireland, like happy conse- 
quences would follow. The answer was that in this 
case the colonial analogy was misleading, for there 
was an essential difference between the position of 
Ireland and, with unimportant exceptions, that of any 
of the twenty-eight communities which had received 



286 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Home Rule. Almost all of these places were far 
away; Ireland was close at hand. As yet the great 
distance had made it impossible for the colonies to be 
represented in the Imperial parliament, but Ireland 
had representatives there, and more than her popula- 
tion gave warrant for. Some of the colonies had vast 
future before them ; they might rival the United King- 
dom itself; even the Liberals would admit that Ireland 
had little future apart from Great Britain. Irish 
finance was inseparably bound up with that of Great 
Britain ; of the self-governing dominions that was not 
true. Moreover, in the dominions there were no im- 
portant minorities which insisted upon remaining 
under the British parliament ; in Ireland always there 
was Ulster. These distant dominions were practically 
independent; their loyalty was unquestioned, but if 
€ver they were hostile it was not in their power to 
threaten the existence of Britain. But Ireland allied 
with some foe could stop the food of Great Britain 
and give that enemy a base of operations against the 
vital part of the commonwealth. 

Doubtless there were many who spoke with strong 
feeling in behalf of interests of their own. These last 
contentions, however, with respect to the position of 
Ireland, and the incalculable dangers which might 
come from Home Rule if complete independence fol- 
lowed after it, with a conflict of British and Irish re- 
lations in the midst of European affairs, these argu- 
ments were advanced by some of the wisest and most 
thoughtful men in the Kingdom, who, regardless of 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 287 

political affiliations, were looked upon with deepest 
respect by most of the people of Great Britain. 
When one considers the European situation in these 
years, it is evident that such reasoning must have 
caused hesitation to many an Englishman sincerely 
actuated by the most generous feeling not only to do 
justice to Ireland but also to give to Ireland whatever 
her people desired. 

Advocates of Home Rule answered that there was 
no danger of the separation so much feared. The 
vast majority of Irishmen had no wish whatever for 
complete independence. It was not wise to give too 
much attention to the sayings of embittered emigrants 
in America, or the heated outbursts of extremists in 
Ireland. Undoubtedly there were at present some 
who spoke thus, but time and the operation of self- 
government would change their feelings. Was it 
just that the sentiments of the Irish people should 
always be judged in England by the hasty and wrath- 
ful words of a few, whose minds were altogether in 
the past or else in a far distant future ? Was Ireland 
never to be considered in respect of the words of her 
responsible leaders and the great body of people who 
followed them? Ireland desired no severance from 
the Empire. She knew that she was too small to 
stand alone in the modern world. It was certain that 
her economic prosperity was altogether dependent 
upon intimate business relations with Great Britain. 
For ages England had always been the principal 
market for Irish goods. Six-sevenths of Ireland's 



288 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

trade and most of her business was with Britain. In 
1910 her total exports amounted to £66,000,000; her 
direct trade with foreign nations was little more than 
£1,500,000. Furthermore, the Old Age Pension Act 
had bound Ireland to England by financial ties which 
Irishmen would not wish to break. But again let it 
be said that Irishmen did not want separation. It 
was all very well to quote some of Mr. Redmond's 
earlier speeches; his ideas had changed in the course 
of time, and over and over again he had declared that 
separation was impossible. "We deny that we are 
separatists and we say we are willing ... to accept 
a subordinate Parliament created by statute of this 
Imperial Legislature as a final settlement of Ireland's 
claims." 9 

But supposing that there was the desire for inde- 
pendence alleged. The proposed Home Rule legis- 
lation provided ample security against it. In gen- 
eral matters the government at London would retain 
its powers Undiminished. The Bill declared: 

Notwithstanding the Establishment of the Irish Parliament 
or anything contained in this Act, the supreme power and 
authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall re- 
main unaffected and undiminished over all persons, matters, 
and things within his Majesty's dominions. 

The Imperial parliament would make all laws con- 
cerning the crown, the succession, regency, foreign 
affairs, treaties, war and peace, the navy, the army, 

9 Speech in the House of Commons, April 11, 1912. 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 289 

and any armed forces. If the Irish parliament at- 
tempted to deal with such matters, its statutes would 
be void. It was because the parliament of West- 
minster and not the Irish body was to be supreme in 
affairs affecting all the Kingdom that Ireland was to 
continue with representation in the Imperial body. 

Irishmen were not disloyal. It might be that some 
were not to be trusted, but was that surprising? 
Irishmen had rejoiced in British disasters, as when 
the defeats in South Africa were announced, but, said 
a Liberal leaflet, "the men who cheered the defeat can 
be made proud of their connection with Great Britain 
and the Empire by a gift ... of Home Rule." 10 
And what of the loyal services of Irish soldiers? what 
of the courage long ago at Fuentes d'Onoro, many a 
time afterwards in India, and even in the Transvaal? 
heroism which Queen Victoria had gratefully ac- 
knowledged? "Don't forget how many of us Irish 
soldiers died in South Africa for the Empire," was 
the legend on a cartoon in colors. 11 

Finally, said the Liberals, even if there were some 
danger, there were certainly advantages also. In the 
first place, matters of local concern would have to be 
settled outside the Imperial parliament, so as to find 
adequate time for imperial policy and affairs of gen- 
eral importance. But there were things far greater 
than that. "Home Rule the Secret of Empire," they 
said. The British Empire was not a collection of de- 

10 Leaflet: One Moment Please (Liberal Publication Department). 

11 Leaflet: Have You Forgotten? (Liberal Publication Department). 



290 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

pendencies under the rule of a central power, but, to a 
great extent, a mighty commonwealth of free states 
banded together for mutual protection and defence. 
The glory of its citizens was that they had succeeded 
in reconciling colonial empire with local autonomy. 
There were now twenty-eight governments with Home 
Rule parliaments, including the Channel Islands and 
the Isle of Man, and in all of them self-government 
had proved the greatest success. "We gave Home 
Rule to the Boers: why not give Home Rule in purely 
Irish affairs to Irishmen?" 12 Whenever white men 
were governed against their wishes, they were apt to 
be disloyal; true allegiance came with freedom. In 
any event, with Ireland the alternative to Home Rule 
was coercion. Moreover, self-government for Ire- 
land would strengthen the bonds of the Empire; for 
the principle was cordially approved by the colonies. 
At one of the Imperial Conferences all of the prime 
ministers of the commonwealths represented there 
favored it. On five occasions the Canadian parlia- 
ment had passed resolutions endorsing the Irish de- 
mand. In 1905 the Australian House of Representa- 
tives sent a petition to that effect to the king. Home 
Rule for Ireland would probably draw the colonial 
commonwealths closer in Imperial federation. 

And Home Rule for Ireland was the condition of a 
scheme even grander. There were some statesmen 
who dreamed of a future when all the English-speak- 
ing peoples would be drawn closer together, and so 

12 Leaflet: How South Africa Became Loyal (Home Rule Council). 



ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOME RULE 291 

have greater security and power, for their common 
civilization and ideals, not only the British Isles and 
the overseas dominions, but also the United States of 
America. Such mighty work must be done in slow 
stages. First, perhaps, an arbitration treaty, after- 
wards some sort of an understanding, in the end, it 
might be, an alliance. There were many reasons why 
this should be brought to pass, but there was also one 
fatal obstacle. Irishmen had gone forth to the 
colonies, and above all to the United States, taking 
with them unquenchable hatred, and resolved to 
thwart whatever England desired. In 1910 a writer 
declared : 

It is only one acute sign of the fact known to every one 
who makes a candid study of American conditions that there 
is no possibility not only of an alliance but of a close rap- 
prochement, or even of a permanent treaty of arbitration 
between the British Empire and the American Republic 
while the Irish question remains on its present footing. To 
place it on a different footing has become one of the chief 
needs of our foreign policy. 13 

In 1913 Earl Grey said in the House of Lords that 
he felt the imperative necessity of settling the Irish 
question in a manner satisfactory to the overseas 
democracies, both the colonies and the United States. 
Mr. Roosevelt had already declared that the pre- 
liminary condition of closer relations was the recon- 

13 J. L. Garvin, in Fortnightly Review, November, 1910, quoted in Is 
It Safe to Give Ireland Home Rule? (Liberal Publication Department), 
p. 13. 



292 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

cilement to England of Irish sentiment in America. 
How much, then, was there to gain! Home Rule 
would settle the Irish question, hitherto a perpetual 
trouble to Great Britain, and in the larger affairs of 
the future it might bring to England warm friends 
from among those who now stood aloof or merely in 
proper relations. 

Had these arguments on one side or the other been 
all that were given, it may be that after a while, in the 
manner of Britishers, the Unionists, outvoted in the 
House of Commons, would have acquiesced in the will 
of the majority, and ceased opposition. But there 
was another factor which these arguments touched 
only in part, which would admit of no compromise, 
and against which all arguments seemed vain. In 
the midst of the controversy, the people of Ulster who 
followed the Covenant, stood aloof, stern and disdain- 
ful. While others talked, they prepared resolutely to 
fight. Most probably, as things now were, the Irish 
question could be settled so far as it was to be settled 
between England and Ireland. The insuperable dif- 
ficulty was a division between two parts of Ireland 
itself. Certainly the Irish question in these last 
years can in no wise be understood without examina- 
tion of the fears and pretensions of Ulster. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ULSTER 

There are not in His Majesty's dominions a more loyal 
set of men than those who constitute the great community 
for which we are fighting . . . we may be coerced into sub- 
mission, but if we are we will be governed as a conquered 
community and nothing else. 

Speech of Sir Edward Carson at Belfast, 
September M, 1913. 

THE problem of Ulster became acute when Glad- 
stone brought before parliament his first Home 
Rule Bill, but the roots of the matter were much more 
remote in the past. Some writers have seen in the 
most ancient legend and literature of Ireland dim 
evidence that in earliest time there was difference be- 
tween the people of Ulster and the other inhabitants 
of the island, a difference marked even in an age of 
tribal disunion. But more truly the division, which in 
1914 seemed to make hopeless all efforts at agreement, 
went back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
and was part of the story of the taking of the country 
by British invaders. I have already briefly told the 
story of the conquest, how unfortunately for a long 
while it was partial and incomplete, so that down to 
the time of the Reformation not much more than the 
coast country was in possession of the English; and 

293 



294 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

how in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the 
island was altogether subdued and taken by the for- 
eigner; how in this last fatal period part of the work 
was accomplished by the device of establishing plan- 
tations, the clearing of the inhabitants from some dis- 
tricts and giving the lands thus obtained to immigrants 
from over the Channel. In the days of James I the 
confiscated lands of Tyrone and Tyrconnel were used 
to found the plantation of Ulster, to which were 
brought English and Scottish settlers from the border 
district of Britain, men and women hardy, tenacious, 
daring, and strong, independent in character, dour in 
religious temperament, with the sternness of the Prot- 
estantism of the north. From the lands upon which 
these newcomers were planted the natives were largely 
removed, though many were allowed to remain to 
work for the new proprietors. 

After the Reformation and after the complete con- 
quest there were in the island two separate entities, 
almost two separate nationalities. One was largely 
Celtic, Catholic, politically backward, and economi- 
cally depressed, ignorant, poor, exploited by aliens, 
with hopeless outlook and fierce hatred for the de- 
spoiler. The other wa's Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, 
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and dissenter, large pro- 
prietors or substantial artisans and farmers, under 
British authority ruling, or allied with the ruling class, 
always proud, sometimes prosperous and successful. 

The invaders who dwelt in Ireland, even in this later 
time, long lived like a garrison. There were vicissi- 



ULSTER 295 

tudes and dreadful struggles before their supremacy- 
was confirmed. There were the days of the Irish up- 
rising in the time of Charles I, and the other days 
when Cromwell came with stern and exalted soldiery 
to slaughter garrisons that resisted, and hunt the 
enemy through endless flight in fens and bog, after 
which there was security for the alien. There was the 
time when James II, outcast, came over from France 
to lead his Irish subjects, up in arms for him and 
themselves. Then their enemies were persecuted, de- 
prived of their property and driven over the sea for 
refuge. Almost were the colonists submerged in the 
deluge, but stern bodies of men held out in Ennis- 
killen, and finally in Londonderry far in the north 
through a siege heroic and very memorable in the 
annals of the island. And there were those other 
times, so hopeless for the natives, when James had 
fled from the Boyne, and Limerick had surrendered, 
and the Irish cause was finally lost, when spirited 
Irishmen went to serve abroad, and Ireland was left 
prostrate to the invader. Those days were long past, 
but memory of the fears and strife in which men had 
faced each other, had left a lasting heritage of fear 
and ill will between the two parts of the population of 
Ireland. All through the eighteenth century the 
Protestant minority 7 , living to a considerable extent in 
Ulster, retained its supremacy, and even preserved 
some industrial and commercial prosperity, though 
this was largely destroyed even for Ulster by the mer- 
cantile policy of Great Britain. All through this time 



296 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the native Irish, the large majority of the people, re- 
mained like serfs beneath their landlords, in extremest 
depression, but clinging with ever more passionate 
devotion to their Roman Catholic faith. The change 
in the spirit of rule and the conduct of affairs in the 
nineteenth century made better the condition of both 
parties. After the removal of economic restrictions 
Ulster went forward in manufactures and commerce, 
in the building of ships and especially the weaving of 
linen. Meanwhile the Celtic inhabitants obtained re- 
ligious and political equality, and at last assistance 
from the state for getting again the land once lost by 
their fathers. But in the long course of these things, 
in the dominance of one and the abasement of the 
other, often in times of common suffering, and now 
in the better time of the present, the difference be- 
tween the two bodies of people in Ireland remained 
very striking. There were occasions when Protest- 
ants and Catholics had acted together; there were 
many times when the inhabitants of the north had been 
foremost in desiring greater freedom for Ireland 
from England. Yet essentially they continued apart. 
After the industrial revolution developed around Bel- 
fast in the early part of the nineteenth century, part 
of Ulster was drawn ever to closer union with Britain. 
And when in the latter part of the nineteenth century 
comparative freedom, better living, and the rising 
spirit of nationality made so many Irishmen desire 
some undoing of the Act of Union, and the giving 
them a government of their own, it could clearly be 



ULSTER 297 

seen that there were in the narrow compass of the 
island two groups in respect of religion, industrial 
organization, and political outlook, which some states- 
men thought were not essentially different, but which 
many more saw to be far more sundered than were 
the populations to the north and the south of the 
Potomac before 1861, and in spirit sometimes virtually 
as diverse as the inhabitants of Germany and France. 
So, while on the one hand it was most proper for the 
Celtic majority to cherish earnest desire for as com- 
plete establishment of their nationality as world af- 
fairs would permit, on the other hand, and from the 
other point of view, men believed almost everything 
that nationalism and prudence could urge made the 
Protestant industrial communities in Ulster cling to 
the Union which bound them to their brethren in 
Great Britain. 

Considerations of religion came first. Such feeling 
may have died out in most places, but in Ireland much 
of the religious intolerance and distrust of the seven- 
teenth century lingered as fiercely as in the days when 
the Reverend George Walker led the citizens of Lon- 
donderry on through their memorable defence. 
Nothing could convince a great many that Home Rule 
did not mean "Rome Rule," as they said. According 
to a leaflet of the Ulster Unionist Council, their fears 
were of what a Romanist once had declared : 



"When you are masters," he said to the Liberals and Prot- 
estants, "we claim perfect liberty for ourselves, as your prin- 



298 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ciples require it ; when we are the masters we refuse it to you, 
as it is contrary to our principles." * 

"The history of a thousand years," said another, "has 
taught us that when the Roman Church can control a 
government, it employs the government to repress 
or to crush heretics, and Protestants are the worst of 
heretics." 2 Ulstermen declared repeatedly that if 
the present protection were withdrawn, the Catholic 
church would find means to make its will prevail in 
spite of any law, that in the end under Home Rule 
they would have neither justice nor safety. A con- 
vention held at Belfast in 1912 issued the statement: 

Presbyterians are convinced that the power of the Church 
of Rome over her members would be used through an Irish 
Parliament and Executive for the furtherance of the Roman 
Catholic faith, and to the detriment of the Evangelical 
Churches. 3 

Outsiders might deride these statements as coming 
from the intolerance of bigots, but they seemed reason- 
able to many in Ulster. It was said that priests had 
nearly complete control over the lives of their people, 
that they worked upon ignorance and religious belief 
so as to secure through the testaments of the fearful 
and the superstitious a constantly increasing propor- 
tion of the property of Ireland, that they lived with 

i Veuillot quoted by Lecky and reprinted in leaflet: Home Rule and 
Rome Rule. 

2 Letter of Dr. Horton in London Times, February 10, 1912. 

s Home Rule : Statement Prepared and Issued in Pursuance of a 
Resolution of the Presbyterian Convention, Held at Belfast, on 1st Feb- 
ruary, 1912 (Belfast, 1912), p. 7. 



ULSTER 299 

the power, prosperity, and well-being of the Catholic 
ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages, that having their 
parishioners completely under their domination they 
took extraordinary measures to maintain their juris- 
diction, that they tried to keep the faithful from hav- 
ing any part in the activities of Protestants, that they 
would not let them share in charities or have working- 
men's clubs or associations with Protestants, or, most 
important of all, common schools. "I began to see 
that there was something besides bigotry," said one 
who went there to study the matter. 4 Some asserted 
that the Irish people were the most thoroughly Cath- 
olic in the world. It was said that Irish Catholic 
ecclesiastical organization was particularly powerful. 
The Irish population had been declining, but the 
number of priests had increased, until the host of 
churchmen was out of all proportion to the number of 
the people, far beyond anything similar in countries 
like Austria or Belgium. Ireland was "Paraguay on 
the Shannon." Was it to be doubted that in politics 
these churchmen would work for the greater glory of 
their church ? It was said that priests told their flocks 
at election time that voters who supported Unionist 
candidates would be responsible for it at the Day of 
Judgment. 

Partisans of Ulster proclaimed that a Roman 
Catholic government would deliver education entirely 
to the church, making it a monopoly of Jesuits and 

«H, H. Fyfe, Ulster To-Day: The Whole Truth (reprinted from the 
Daily Mail), p. 24. 



300 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

various teaching orders of Rome. In 1912 the Irish 
Methodists issued a statement based on Michael Mc- 
Carthy's assertion, that with some negligible excep- 
tions there was not a secondary Roman Catholic 
school kept by laymen in the British Isles, that all 
of them were owned by priests, monks, and nuns, and 
conducted on Jesuit principles. It was said that the 
Catholic hierarchy ever denounced as godless the 
teachings of others, and forbade Catholic children to 
be taught along with those of the other faith. Even 
now Irish education was slowly tending towards 
Catholic methods and ideals; under Home Rule all 
would be controlled by the Vatican, Irish primary 
education would be sectarianized, and provision for 
Protestant minorities in Nationalist districts would be 
stopped throughout Ireland. Also the supremacy of 
the church in politics would bring it about that public 
institutions like hospitals and work -houses, supported 
by the state or by public contribution, would come 
under control of the church. 

A great deal was made of the Ne Temere decree of 
1907. There was account widely given of a scandal: 
a Roman Catholic married to a Presbyterian girl in 
her church and with every legal formality, who lived 
with her happily until after the first child was born, 
but who before the birth of the second, influenced by 
the priest, began to doubt the validity of a marriage 
not performed in the Catholic church, who afterwards 
removed and hid the children, and when she refused 
to change her religion, abandoned her altogether. 



ULSTER 301 

She did not, ran the tale, see her husband or children 
again. When such things are done, it was asked, in 
broad daylight under the rule of the Imperial parlia- 
ment, what might Irish Protestants expect under a 
Dublin parliament controlled by the Catholic Church? 
A very striking pamphlet was written to terrify 
Protestants by example of what happened in another 
place where political control had been gained by the 
Catholics. Once, it was said, Canada had been a 
Crown colony, ruled from Downing Street; later on 
each part or province had received its own legislature 
and home rule. One of them was Quebec, thereto- 
fore joined with Ontario. There had been a Protest- 
ant minority in Quebec opposed to a separation from 
Ontario, which would leave them at the mercy of a 
Catholic majority and priesthood. Their position, 
then, was exactly like that of the Protestants in north 
Ireland now resisting a similar measure. In Quebec 
the Catholic leaders had had no desire, so they said, 
to interfere with the rights of the Protestants, and 
had willingly consented to embody in the new consti- 
tution guarantees to protect them. The separation 
had been effected, forty-five years ago. Let Prot- 
estants of Ulster know what had followed. Roman 
Catholics had first got complete control of the legis- 
lature, then of the courts and the schools. Money 
voted by the state for education was spent as the 
bishops ordered. No bill affecting education could be 
passed without the sanction of the Archbishop of 
Quebec. The schools consequently were used to 



302 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

train children in the doctrines and ritual of the papacy, 
so that hundreds of Protestant farmers, isolated 
among the Catholics, kept their children from schools 
which they were compelled to support with their taxes. 
Convents and monasteries, subsidized by the state, 
multiplied in prosperity. The priesthood became 
more and more powerful and greedy. The arch- 
bishop in his palace was the real ruler of Quebec. 
One-seventh of the public revenues went for the use 
of the church. Once there had been 17,000 Protest- 
ants in the city of Quebec; now there were only 4,000. 
As fast as possible they were leaving the country. 
Many had gone to the United States. The author did 
not say, what may not have seemed relevant to his 
exposition, that in the same time that so many Prot- 
estants had come to the United States from the Cath- 
olic province, a far greater number of Catholics had 
also come, drawn largely by economic conditions ; but 
he did declare that the people of Ulster could not so 
easily get away from the dominion of the threatened 
Dublin parliament. 5 

It was difficult even for those in the midst of the 
controversy to know how far these fears were ground- 
less or exaggerated, and only simulated for political 
purposes. There were a great many noble and liberal 
statements from Catholics, and also from Irish Prot- 

s Ulster and Home Rule: A Canadian Parallel, by Mr. Robert Sel- 
lar, Quebec, Author of "The Tragedy of Quebec" (Belfast, 1912). 
This pamphlet was based upon letters which first appeared in the Bel- 
fast Witness. It was reprinted in various forms and received the widest 
possible circulation. 



ULSTER 303 

estants, even in Ulster, who declared that they had no 
apprehension. There were many stories about hu- 
mane and friendly priests. There were also those 
who said that Irish Catholics were broad-minded and 
fair, and that bigotry and intolerance were mostly on 
the other side. Many figures were adduced to prove 
that the actual discrimination was not by Catholics 
against Presbyterians and Methodists, but by Episco- 
palians against all the others. It was said that these 
fears had long been raised and religious differences 
heightened for a selfish purpose: 

As long as embittered relations could be prolonged between 
the various denominations, the landlords were able to collect 
their rents without difficulty ; and successive Governments 
foolishly believed that religious differences made it easier to 
govern the country. When, however, Self-Government is 
brought into being, the members of all religious denomina- 
tions will have something very different to occupy their 
minds and energies than doctrinal differences. 6 

It was also said that Ulster capitalists and politicians 
had awakened this religious strife so that in the midst 
of hatred and passion their employees would think 
less about the starvation wages which were paid to 
them. 

The advocates of Home Rule did not scruple to say 
that the fears of Ulster resulted largely from ancient 
prejudice and bigoted ideas inherited from olden 
times. If only the northerners would, they could 

6 Leaflet: Why Some Irish Protestants Oppose Home Rule (Home 
Rule Council). 



304 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 






easily see that the Home Rule Bill provided ample 
safety for the religion of minorities. But they did 
not answer so successfully the contention of the 
Covenanters that it was not so much direct and specific 
injury which they feared — such things the law could 
properly prevent — but the indirect results of skilful 
manipulation of laws, the doing of those things which 
lie beyond the law and depend upon the sentiment of 
the majority of the people. More successful was the 
inquiry whether it was right that the destiny of the 
island should be decided by a minority, that Irishmen 
should not have Home Rule because half of the popu- 
lation of one of the provinces opposed it. In LTlster 
nearly half of the people were Catholics, and some of 
the Protestants favored Home Rule. Of Ulster's 
representatives in the House of Commons nearly as 
many supported Home Rule as desired a continuance 
of the Union. 

In the second place there were economic considera- 
tions which, if less fiercely urged, were, perhaps, even 
more important. Protestant Ulster was the commer- 
cial and industrial portion of the island, the rest of 
Ireland agricultural almost entirely. Industrial 
Ulster was greatly and increasingly prosperous. The 
population of Ireland had declined from eight mil- 
lions to four, but the inhabitants of Belfast had con- 
stantly increased in numbers. The city had now 
some of the most flourishing industries in the world. 
In 1912 the Belfast News Letter published an indus- 
trial map to show that Ulster, with 35 per cent of Ire- 



ULSTER 305 

land's population, paid nearly three times as much 
customs duties as the rest of Ireland, had three-fifths 
of all Irish export trade, and owned three times as 
much shipping as all the other parts; that Belfast 
alone paid one-half of all Irish taxation, that it had a 
smaller number of paupers than any other place in 
the United Kingdom ; and that the Ulster towns were 
thriving industrial centers, their artisans numerous, 
sturdy, and well cared for. 

The economic life of Ulster, then, was unlike that 
of the other provinces. Its interests and its needs 
were different. Under Home Rule there would be a 
parliament at Dublin making laws for the island and 
assessing the taxes. This parliament would be elected 
by the Irish people. The majority would naturally 
pass such laws as they deemed best, and levy the taxes 
in accord with their own interests. Ulster had only 
a third of the population, but already she paid two- 
thirds of the taxes. Would not the majority, repre- 
senting an agricultural constituency poorer than its 
northern neighbors, heap taxes upon the industries of 
the north? Certainly they would be able to do it, with 
a usual majority of more than two to one; and they 
would be apt to do it, since not only would they have 
at heart the interests of their agricultural constitu- 
ency, but most of them would be entirely without any 
experience with the requirements of an industrial com- 
munity. Not one in fifty of them, perhaps, would 
ever have managed a factory or employed as many as 
fifty hands. Such statements marshalled in little 



306 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

pamphlets sold at a penny were circulated everywhere. 
"Ulster is convinced that under Home Rule her in- 
dustries would be ruined." 7 

There was much answering of these assertions. 
The Home Rule Council, which worked so actively 
to spread doctrines favorable to its cause, declared 
that after all the prosperity of Ulster depended pri- 
marily on its connections with the rest of the island, 
and that this prosperity was being jeopardized by 
those who spoke in such fashion. 

Lastly, the people of Ulster, in common with 
Unionists elsewhere in Ireland and in Britain, dreaded 
certain political consequences which they asserted 
would follow self-government in Ireland. Home 
Rule, they said, meant Irish government by the An- 
cient Order of Hibernians and the United Irish 
League, with methods as corrupt and malignant as 
those long known in American cities where Irish poli- 
ticians held sway. Something of it, unfortunately, 
was already known in Ireland. Now the protection 
of British authority gave security to those who dis- 
liked such politicians, but if this were once withdrawn 
the power of the higher leaders might be further ex- 
tended in Ulster and elsewhere through economic 
pressure, destruction of property, and secret terror. 
There would doubtless be discrimination in legislature, 
in courts, and generally in public life, against Prot- 

i Ulster's Protest: Her Industrial, Political, Imperial Reasons for 
Refusing to Submit to Home Rule (Union Defence League, 1914). 



ULSTER 307 

estants of Ulster, so far as they attracted the avarice 
or stood in the way of the dominant group. 

Therefore, Ulster Unionists, and the English poli- 
ticians who abetted them, opposed Home Rule; and 
if it was to be given, contrary, as they thought, to all 
dictates of wisdom, then they insisted on the total or 
partial exclusion of Ulster from the effects of its 
operation. But exclusion was also beset with in- 
numerable difficulties. Nationalists were unalterably 
opposed to having Home Rule only for an Ireland 
from which an indispensable part was left out. This, 
they said, would doom the whole thing to failure. 
Ireland and the Irish nation must not be divided. 
Moreover, the situation was not so simple as if it had 
merely involved the relations of one province with the 
rest of the island. There was not an Ulster entirely 
Protestant and industrial, containing one-third of the 
population, opposed to the other three provinces pre- 
dominantly agricultural and Roman Catholic. Ulster 
itself was divided. Only certain districts contained 
now a decided majority of Unionists and Protestants, 
and men constituting an industrial society. In some 
of the counties most of the population was Nationalist 
and Roman Catholic. According to the census of 
1911 there were about 700,000 Catholics and nearly 
900,000 Protestants of various denominations in Ul- 
ster. Around Londonderry and Belfast were the dis- 
tricts strongly opposed to Home Rule. Indeed there 
was good reason to believe that in five out of the nine 



308 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

counties advocates of Home Rule were more numer- 
ous. Sometimes a majority of Ulster's representa- 
tives in London were in favor of Home Rule ; though 
the Union Defence League explained that because of 
inequalities in representation a smaller number of 
Unionists represented a larger number of voters and 
people. 

To obviate some of the difficulties there were those 
who suggested as a solution the excluding from the 
provisions of Home Rule only those counties of Ulster 
in which the greater number of the inhabitants were 
opposed to it. But the difficulty was that in every 
county excepting Antrim and Down the populations 
were so mingled together that there would probably 
be a desperate struggle between the two parties for 
the possession of debatable areas. A few months 
before the beginning of the European crisis Mr. As- 
quith proposed as a compromise that the Unionist 
counties of Ulster might, if they wished, be excluded 
from the provisions of the Home Rule law for six 
years; but Ulster Unionists wanted permanent not 
temporary exclusion, and the Unionist political lead- 
ers would not accept the scheme. On the other hand 
the Nationalist leaders were not willing that even a 
part of Ulster should be left out of a self-governing 
Ireland. They feared that the exclusion of even a 
small part of Ireland from the new government would 
entail the failure of Home Rule, since that part was 
so wealthy and important. The best of the Nation- 
alists, while they were willing to admit of no com- 



ULSTER 309 

promise about leaving out Ulster, declared not only 
that Ulster had no just cause for fear, but asserted 
that they would do all that could be done to reassure 
her, if that could be honorably accomplished. They 
not only gave their word as to this, and so spoke for 
their constituents, but expressed the desire that Home 
Rule be accompanied by amplest safeguards for the 
people of the north. Mr. Redmond stated this best. 
He said he did not wish self-government to come as a 
bitter defeat for an honest and intelligent section of 
his countrymen: "I want to influence their intelli- 
gence, I want to dissipate their suspicions, I want to 
soften their hearts." 

Such was the Ulster question; such were the argu- 
ments employed in its discussion. I have gone into 
them at more length than some may think they de- 
serve, in order to show that the Home Rule problem 
was not so simple as often it has seemed to laymen on 
this side of the ocean. Americans have no intimate 
knowledge of such difficulties now. Once our fathers 
knew them in the days of slavery, state rights, and 
secession; and, farther back, our ancestors before the 
Union was formed. But the men and women of this 
generation in America are scarcely able to conceive 
them; and looking to England, knowing how long 
self-government has prevailed in English constitu- 
tional practice, and how in recent times it has been so 
generously extended to colonies and dominions, they 
think it an~aixumaly for Home Rule to be so ardently 
desired in Ireland, yet so bitterly contested and down 



310 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

to the present withheld. Often, knowing little of 
England exactly, they have believed this to result 
from blind perverseness and characteristic stubborn- 
ness, perpetuating an olden tragedy into modern 
times. In the Irish question there has been much 
wrong, and mistakes have not been wanting, on both 
sides, in recent times. But an examination of the 
fugitive and controversial literature and the debates 
in parliament and before the people makes it evident 
that there was much to be said on both sides. We in 
this country have been more apt to sympathize with 
the Irish, and perhaps that is as it should be; but 
certainly there were a great many people who hon- 
estly believed that Home Rule was not only unneces- 
sary for the interests of Ireland, and perhaps even 
detrimental to the true interests of the Irish people, 
but that certainly, whatever might be the results to 
that country, without doubt self-government, so far as 
it tended toward separation and the erecting of an 
independent or hostile government, would be fatal to 
the fundamental interests of England and the British 
Empire. And yet it must always be remembered that 
just before the war the English Liberals working with 
the Irish Nationalists had at last agreed to give Ire- 
land Home Rule, notwithstanding the difficulties in- 
volved. Still, however, there remained the fact that 
an important part of Ireland was entirely unrecon- 
ciled to the scheme, and willing to take up arms to 
maintain its connection with Great Britain. What 
would have come of this, or what will come in the fu- 



ULSTER 311 

ture, remains as yet uncertain ; for with the beginning 
of the great war in Europe the Irish question was kept 
for a while in abeyance ; and when it reappeared as an 
issue, new baffling problems came with it. 



PART III 
IRISH NATIONALITY AND THE WAR 



CHAPTER I 

IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AND THE 
IRISH REVIVAL 

This heritage to the race of Kings : 

Their children and their children's seed 

Have wrought their prophecies in deed 
Of terrible and splendid things. 

The hands that fought, the hearts that broke 

In old immortal tragedies, 
These have not failed beneath the skies, 

Their children's heads refuse the yoke. 

Joseph Mar}' Plunkett: "Our Heritage." 

You cannot make a nation of half-and-halfs, you can only 
have a province where people are half Irish and half Eng- 
lish. Make them wholly Irish — in speech, in thought, in 
mental direction, and then you will make a nation that will 
have a worthy civilization. 

Padraic Colum, "Sinn Fein and Irish Ireland," 
in The Irish Rebellion of 1916, p. 38. 

IF the latter part of the nineteenth century was a 
new age in the relations between Ireland and 
England, with some excellent measures tending to 
make Ireland content and draw the two peoples 
eloser together in real union, the latest generation 
has nevertheless been an era in which gradually arose 
something else that despite best intentions, perhaps, 

315 



316 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

on both sides, has tended at last to divide them so that 
they never seemed farther apart. That which cre- 
ated so great a barrier and such untold possibilities 
for the future, is the revival of Irish nationality, the 
revival of something old and fine, but long submerged 
and often forgot by most men, something splendid 
and good, which the world much desires to have again, 
but withal, at this moment, so fierce, so blind, and un- 
reasoning, as to seem big with mischief and woe. 
From many things did this Irish revival begin: the 
spirit of a strange and wondrous time, the stirring 
of a world-upheaval, justifiable discontent and im- 
patience, and laudable desire for self-expression; but 
it came also from a return in spirit to the old Irish 
past, and the wish to make live again all that was 
great and good in that past; and this was brought 
about largely through revival of the use of the Irish 
speech and study of the literature of old Ireland. 

Gaelic, the language of the Irish, has not usually 
been known to those who speak English, except as the 
Irish themselves took up English. The Danish, 
Norman, English invaders, who settled in Ireland 
permanently, often gave up the language which they 
brought, as they were absorbed into the native popu- 
lation; but to those who came merely to rule for a 
while, and to most of the people who lived in the 
greater island, Gaelic ever seemed an uncouth 
tongue, which would disappear in the goodness of 
more civilized times. There were exceptions, to be 
sure. Queen Elizabeth had some interest, and oc- 



IRISH LANGUAGE 317 

casionally there were others ; but generally the inhabi- 
tants of Britain were as little informed of the Irish 
language and cared as little about it, as they did about 
the strange tongues which travellers told of in farther 
Asia or along the African coast. In course of time 
a little was popularly known about the Celtic lan- 
guages in Brittany, in Wales, in the Isle of Man, in 
the Scottish Highlands, and in Ireland, through such 
writings as the publications of Macpherson and some 
of the novels of Scott; but for the most part out- 
side of Celtic countries the languages were only 
known to a few scholars. It was not, indeed, for a 
long while that scholars understood the character and 
relations of this group. The Vergleichende Gram- 
matik of the great German philologist Bopp, which 
first appeared in 1833, did not admit Celtic into the 
Indo-European group, though the work of the Eng- 
lishman Pritchard a little before this time and that 
of the Swiss philologist Pictet somewhat later caused 
him to recognize it as a relation of the Germanic, the 
Graeco-Italic, and the Sanscrit; and later still the 
Bavarian scholar Zeuss demonstrated the relation- 
ship conclusively in his Grammatica Celtica, pub- 
lished in 1853. 

Meanwhile the Celtic speech was gradually being 
abandoned by most of the inhabitants of Ireland. In 
the seventeenth century it was the language of a sub- 
ject race held as inferiors and debarred from any of 
the honors and emoluments of state. Those who 
spoke it were often regarded as barbarians and 



318 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

usually treated as serfs. The Irish Celts were sub- 
jected to all sorts of persecution and disability, from 
which they could escape most easily by abandoning 
all that was Celtic. In Ireland in the eighteenth 
century there could be little opportunity for anyone 
who used the Gaelic tongue and professed the Cath- 
olic faith. The old Irish schools disappeared. Irish 
learning and literature were frowned on by the gov- 
ernment and scantily supported by the impoverished 
natives. More and more did Irishmen learn the Eng- 
lish language, to which they gave a delightful and 
peculiar pronunciation of their own, and forget the 
speech of their fathers. Celtic remained the only 
language of a great number of people in Ireland, 
and continued to be used and understood by many 
more, but after two centuries this was so rather 
among the lowest, the poorest, and most ignorant of 
the people, and in the wilder and more remote parts 
of the islands. As early as 1738 it was said that only 
one out of twenty people did not know the English 
language. Yet Irish survived the persecution and 
depression of the eighteenth century, and continued to 
be used and understood by a large part of the popula- 
tion, until the great famine, when it received, what 
seemed then, its death-blow. The hunger and the 
fever found most of their victims in the districts 
where Gaelic was the only speech or where it was used 
along with the English, and it was from these same 
districts also that the great emigrations went forth in 
the following years. In 1835 a traveller believed that 



IRISH LANGUAGE 319 

four millions out of seven in Ireland still kept Irish 
as their mother tongue ; but the next census after the 
famine gave only 1,20-1,684 as the number of those 
who used English and Gaelic and 319,602 as speaking 
Gaelic alone. By 1901 the official figures were 620, 
189 for those who used both languages and 20,953 
for those who only spoke Gaelic. 

Accordingly, it seemed that what Cromwell and 
the planters had once attempted, the removal of 
things Irish from Ireland, was on the way to being 
achieved in other fashion. Wherever Irishmen were 
they were giving up the old speech and taking the 
English instead. Critics declared that Gaelic in Ire- 
land was dying of internal decay, and others believed 
that with the adoption generally by Irishmen of the 
English speech, there would in time be a desirable ap- 
proximation of character and ideals in the two islands, 
so that with the proceeding economic betterment in 
the end there would be general acquiescence in the 
Union in the midst of contentment and peace. So it 
seemed that after a while the Celtic of Ireland would 
be one of the dead languages, as the Celtic of Strath- 
clyde had become long ago, and the Celtic of Corn- 
wall not long before ; not like the Greek, to be studied 
and read for ages by innumerable students because 
of supreme beauty and the treasure of its content, nor 
like the Latin because of its enduring influence upon 
men, but a language bright with old treasures and 
dear once, with a savor and sweetness of its own, 
nevertheless gone now like other things before it, dead 



320 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 



and buried in libraries and old books, dimly and 
faintly remembered by some who chanced to think of 
it, but actually known only to philologists and erudite 
men. 

Such consummation seemed lamentable to those 
who thought of the glory and beauty of old Irish 
things and cherished whatever was left of them. 
Particularly was it dreaded by them who wished Irish 
character to be strengthened and preserved. The 
most potent and general means of expressing and re- 
taining national character is language spoken and 
written. If a people develops the ability of literary 
expression at all, in its literature, perhaps, is to be 
found that which best reveals what is most distinctive 
in its character and makes its character individual 
and peculiar; and through the body of its literature 
and traditions it will most affect its later generations. 
The greatest thing of the nineteenth century, said 
Bismarck, was that English was the language of most 
of North America; and doubtless because this was so 
did the people of the United States for the most part 
instinctively turn to England and the Allies in the 
earlier months of the war. Character and spirit of a 
people, expressing themselves in the language of the 
people, express something that cannot be given in 
another language, and only in part through transla- 
tion. Accordingly, if the inhabitants of Ireland 
gave up entirely the old Celtic speech and adopted 
the English, they might use it not as the inhabitants 
of England did, but with differences of character and 






IRISH LANGUAGE 321 

expression all their own, as was so with the Scots or 
the people of the United States, but their speech and 
their literature would not give out what the Gaelic 
words had used to do, the people would more and 
more be cut off from communion with the old Irish 
past, and after a while the character and ideals of this 
Anglian Ireland would be much unlike what a Celtic 
Ireland would have given to its children. 

Formerly, I think, when English-speaking people 
thought of the literature of Ireland, they were most 
apt to have in mind that which had been written in 
English. Among the settlers and conquerors, in- 
deed, and those who used their language, were some 
whose writings have brought glory to Ireland and 
who have taken high place in the company of Eng- 
lish letters. It was in Ireland in the eighteenth cen- 
tury that some of the finest writing of Swift was done, 
that ultimate master of the strong and terrible among 
all the prose writers of English. Steele, who sur- 
passed Addison, his colleague, was born in Dublin, 
but wrote his essays and comedies in England. 
Berkeley, so important in the annals of philosophic 
composition, was bishop of Cloyne. From Ireland 
came Oliver Goldsmith; and even yet we contrast 
Irish and English character as we follow his conver- 
sations with Dr. Johnson in Boswell. Both Sheridan 
and Moore were born in Dublin, as was Edmund 
Burke, whose stately volumes of magnificent prose 
contain more political wisdom than the work of any 
other who has written in our language. 



322 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

The glories of the eighteenth century faded in the 
nineteenth. In Anglo-Irish literature there was no 
novelist to be in the company of Scott, or Thackeray, 
or Dickens, until at the end of the century came 
George Moore, whose Mummer's Wife and Esther 
Waters remain the masterpieces of realistic fiction in 
English. After the Irish Melodies of Moore poetry 
declined, and Ireland brought forth no Byron or 
Browning or Tennyson or Swinburne. Nor was 
there during this time much in Irish prose to be named 
beside the splendid array across the sea, though some 
remember the Jail Journal of Mitchel, and the his- 
torical writings of Lecky continue to be read almost 
as much as Macaulay's. One genius there was in the 
drama: Oscar Wilde, who more than Poe has been 
under a moral stigma which obscures from the un- 
discerning the sparkle of a dialogue only equalled by 
the best comic writing of France and not seen in Eng- 
land after the time of the drama of the Restoration. 

But there is an older literature in Ireland, which 
once rose to splendor and glory, had its long day of 
triumph, failed and withered with the hopes of its 
people, then for many a year lay neglected, and 
cherished only by refugees, or peasants in Connaught. 
The Celtic literature of Ireland had in the latter part 
of the nineteenth century so far perished that only a 
little of it was kept by a few who held to the Gaelic 
language, and it was studied only by philologists and 
scholars. 

Much no doubt has perished, but there is still a 



IRISH LANGUAGE 323 

great mass of Irish literature written in Celtic. Not 
to speak of the ogham writing on wood and on stone, 
which has much antiquarian but small literary value, 
there are from the old Irish period of the language, 
700-1100, a few prose writings and poems, of the 
eighth or ninth centuries or earlier, mostly of as little 
literary excellence as the writing done among the 
Anglo-Saxons at the same time. More important 
are the numerous glosses or marginal notes and ex- 
planations scattered about in religious writings. 
Few of the earliest manuscripts remain in Ireland. 
It would appear that the scholars who wrote or pre- 
served them took them away in the days of the Danish 
invasions, and nowadays they are to be found more 
often, in libraries of continental Europe. 

Most of the Celtic literature of Ireland comes 
from the so-called middle period of the language, 
1100-1550. The earlier originals of most of the 
pieces are lost, and the copies, as we now have them, 
are preserved in codices or collections whose quaint 
names are very celebrated in literary annals. The 
Book of the Dun Cow, part of it done about the be- 
ginning of the twelfth century, contains one version 
of the epic, Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Iliad of Ireland. 
The Book of Ballymote, the most extensive of the.se 
collections, contains much historical matter, compiled 
about the beginning of the fifteenth century; and the 
Speckled Book, largely religious, was done somewhat 
later. Among many others of this period are the 
Book of Leinster, the Book of Lismore, the Book of 



324 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Armagh. It has been estimated that the contents of 
some of the more important manuscripts of this period 
would fill over 18,000 printed quarto pages. It is 
obvious from the manner in which these manuscripts 
were written or compiled, that in this middle Irish 
period there is much writing that has come with little 
change from the old Irish period preceding. 

Of greatest interest are the medieval romances, 
stories almost purely Irish, since little of them is to 
be found in any form in the literature of other Celtic 
countries. The more ancient group of them, Ire- 
land's principal contribution to the literature of the 
world, arose in Ulster, and dealing with that part of 
the island, are known as the Ulster Cycle. They pur- 
port to relate to the time of the first century of the 
Christian era. Containing much that appears fab- 
ulous and imaginary, they are of slight value for an 
account of early events, but they seem to present a 
very true picture of the early conditions which were 
known or remembered at the time when they were 
composed, and it is from them as well as from the 
Brehon Laws that early Irish society is known to us. 

The great epic of the Ulster Cycle is the Tain Bo 
Cuailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. In early Irish 
society, as with other peoples, the principal wealth 
was in cattle, and the stories of the period have to do 
largely with tains, or cattle-drives, between Ulster 
and the parts of Erin nearby. This is the story of 
Fergus, once king of Ulster, now an. exile -in Con- 
naught, of Conchobar, now Ulster's king, of Ailill 



IRISH LANGUAGE 325 

and Medb, king and queen of Connaught, and above 
all of Cuchulain, heroic champion of Ulster. Queen 
Medb possessed a wondrous bull, and coveted an- 
other in Ulster. So she assembled her host. Ulster 
was defended by the hero Cuchulain, with whose his- 
tory and mighty exploits the epic is chiefly concerned, 
until it closes with the rout of the army of Medb and 
the combat and death of the bulls. 

It is an old world of barbaric splendor that is re- 
vealed in this and other tales of the Ulster Cycle. 
The great warriors go to battle in chariots. Often 
they bear themselves in right knightly way and do 
acts of chivalrous kindness; but they go forth with 
savage war-dogs, and when they triumph they bear 
off the heads of conquered foemen slung at their 
belts or round the necks of their horses or to be kept 
in a hall of the palace. Often the women are the 
counsellors and equals of the men. Far inferior in 
literary workmanship to the Iliad, the things in these 
tales often remind one of the world of Homer. 

However the Iliad in the form we now have it may 
have been composed, it is generally believed to mark 
the end of a long course of development of Greek 
epic writing, the earlier memorials of this develop- 
ment having perished. But the Tain and other 
stories of the group represent the earlier and inter- 
mediate stages of epic composition, not the last and 
most perfect, which in Ireland were never achieved. 
These old romances are mainly in prose, with some 
poems interspersed. They are often characterized 



326 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

by great dramatic force, by brilliancy, and keen hu- 
mor; but excellent though they be, they are also 
marred by striking defects : they indulge in grotesque 
exaggeration, abound in minute description and 
wearisome repetition, they lack proportion, and are 
sometimes of intolerable length. 

There are many Tains in this cycle, and numerous 
other tales of war and adventure. The story which 
is now known better even than the story of Ciichulain 
is that one of the so-called Three Sorrows of Story- 
telling, the Aided Chloinne Uisnig, Death of the Sons 
of Usnech, better known in modern versions as the 
story of Deirdre. This is the tale of how King Conor 
of Ulster brought up as his future wife the beautiful 
child Deirdre, fated, said the portents, to cause deso- 
lation and woe. Long secluded, she chanced once to 
see Naisi, son of Usnech, loved him and went with 
him to Alban or Scotland. Afterward returning 
they were betrayed to their death. This tale became 
one of the great love-stories of the world. Later 
versions said the lovers could not be separated in 
death, that laid apart in the burial-ground their 
bodies were found side by side each morning, and that 
when stakes were thrust through the bodies in sepa- 
rate graves, trees grew from them which embraced 
at last over the Cathedral of Armagh. In the nine- 
teenth century this story was put into English by Sir 
Samuel Ferguson and others, and later it furnished 
the theme for plays by Yeats and by Synge in the 
Irish Literary Revival. 



IRISH LANGUAGE 327 

For southern Ireland, there is the Fenian or Os- 
sianic Cycle, a group of romances, some in prose, 
some ballads, in verse, about the deeds of Fion and 
Oisin and others. The stories which they relate do 
not occur frequently in the older manuscripts which 
contain the epics of the Ulster Cycle, and the period 
to which they relate is a later one in which the north 
country has lost its conspicuous importance. Some 
of the stories, indeed, are very old, with origin lost in 
obscurity; but while the tales of the northern cycle 
have to do with the deeds of kings and heroes of the 
upper classes, the Fenian Cycle is concerned largely 
with an ancient military caste of professional war- 
riors, the fianna, and also with the people; and one of 
the theories about their origin is that they arose 
among the subject race which had once been con- 
quered by the Celts. The earliest manuscripts of any 
length dealing with this group of tales date from the 
fifteenth century. The stories are about the exploits 
of the fianna, typified in the doings of Fion and Oisin, 
and have to do with war, especially the chase, and tell 
many a tale of fairies and phantoms and strange 
things of olden days. It is not improbable that an 
organized force of professional or mercenary soldiers 
may have existed in these times, though generally, it is 
well known, the military organization was by tribes 
and clans ; but whether the heroes named ever actually 
existed is lost altogether in the obscurity of a time 
passed away. 

In style the longer prose romances in this cycle are 



328 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

far inferior to those of the Ulster group, though the 
ballads are excellent. In the prose narratives, how- 
ever, are found many charming lyric poems, hunting- 
songs, and lullabies. The stories of the Ossianic 
Cycle were for a while best known to the English- 
speaking world not through acquaintance with the 
Celtic romances of Ireland or even translations of 
them, but through the celebrated compositions or 
forgeries of James Macpherson, a Scotchman, who 
published in 1762 and 1763 the Ossianic Poems, 
Fingal and Temora, which were not, as he said, Gaelic 
epics rendered by him into English, but compositions 
of his own with all the polish of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, based upon Highland ballads closely related to 
those long current in Erin. But far different was 
it with Irishmen. The exploits of Fion and Diar- 
muid were many a time told and retold. For a great 
while the tradition endured that in an ancient fortress 
in Donegal a thousand men sat, hand upon sword, 
resting in magic sleep; that often they stirred them- 
selves — "Is the time yet come?" — that when the deep 
answer echoed: "The time is not yet," they sank back 
again into slumber profound ; but one day would come 
forth for the freedom of their country. 

In the oldest and also in the later compositions 
there are pieces which relate to the ancient mythology 
of the island, and throw much light on the early re- 
ligion of the Irish Celts. From very old times on 
there are many poems about the beauty and charm of 
nature. 



IRISH LANGUAGE 329 

Generally of less literary value, but of greater im- 
portance, perhaps, for creating and sustaining Irish 
nationality, are the numerous genealogies, annals, and 
histories, of which many early ones have been lost, but 
of which a great many have been preserved in some 
form and come down. In medieval England, where 
learning was altogether in the hands of churchmen 
and monks, most of the chronicles and contemporary 
accounts are in Latin, not early English, the Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicle being a notable exception. In Ire- 
land, where learning and writing were not monopo- 
lized by ecclesiastics, but were for a long while very 
largely held by professional and hereditary learned 
castes, the fili and afterwards the bards, such writing 
was usually in Gaelic, and the remains of this writing 
now constitute a magnificent memorial of the old 
language of Ireland. 

No people ever more desired to remember their 
past, and it has justly been said -that Ireland has 
been a country of annalists. To traditional fili of 
early times are ascribed a number of poems, some of 
them in existing form undoubtedly of later date, 
which tell the story of far off events in Ireland. In 
the tenth century Eochaid O'Flainn wrote a poem 
giving a chronological account of kings of Ulster. 
About the same time MacLiac told in his verse of the 
greatness of Brian Boru, to whom he was chief secre- 
tary and poet. His lament on the fall of Kincora, 
the palace of his master, was long remembered, and it 
was recalled, perhaps, afterwards by Moore, and by 



330 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Lady Gregory not long ago. In the eleventh cen- 
tury Flann Mainistreach compiled synchronisms of 
the kings and historical poems. And in the centuries 
following, the chief members of the bardic families 
continued to write eulogies and poems about their 
chieftains and tribes. 

Very important for the student are the annals, 
compiled often by contemporaries, by the professional 
annalists and genealogists of the tribes. There still 
exist from the eleventh century fragments of the 
Annals of Tigernach, done by an ecclesiastic who 
wrote of Irish affairs in his native language and of 
foreign matters in Latin. From the thirteenth cen- 
tury or earlier come the Annals of Innisf alien, also 
in the two languages. The Annals of Loch Ce deal 
with Irish history from the eleventh to the seventeenth 
century. Among others are the Annals of Ulster, 
thus named because largely they deal with the north, 
the Annals of Connacht, and the Annals of Clonmac- 
noise remaining now only in English translation. 
Such narratives invariably give an account of the his- 
tory of years l'ong before the time when they were 
actually written, so that it is only the later portions 
that have a contemporary value, though it should be 
noted that the contemporary work does in many 
places extend back beyond the time of the compilation 
in the form now existing. Greatest of all the works 
of the chroniclers is that which is known as the Annals 
of the Four Masters, compiled in the modern period 
of Irish literature and writing in the first half of the 



I 



IRISH LANGUAGE 331 

seventeenth century, by Michael O'Clery, two more 
of the family O'Clery, and another. The English 
conquest was being completed now with the deg- 
radation of Irishmen and the ruin of their old civil- 
ization. The manuscripts which had been so num- 
erous in earlier times were being lost or dispersed or 
carried to foreign lands. It was the ambition of 
O'Clery and his comrades to do what others had tried 
to do before his time, collect together as many of the 
old accounts and as much of the old information as 
possible, before they should be irretrievably lost. 
And well it is for the scholar now that the work was 
done, for almost all of the materials used by the Four 
Masters have disappeared since their day. Their 
compilation, which was made in the years 1632-1636, 
gives an account of Irish history from the coming of 
a granddaughter of Noah to 1616. The Masters 
have arranged in chronological order the materials 
which they were able to collect, whereas out of similar 
sources Keating wrote a historical narrative of his 
own. 

There are many historical writings. The Cog ad 
Gaedel re Gallaib, Wars of the Gael and the Gall, 
tells the story of the Norse invasions and gives an ac- 
count of the battle of Clontarf. A portion of it is 
ascribed to MacLiac, and the part about the battle is 
apparently by one who lived then. The greatest of 
all the Irish historians, one who came in the modern 
period, was Seathrun Ceitinn (1570 - c. 1646) , better 
known as Geoffrey Keating, and one of the best 



332 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

known names in all Irish literature. Living in the 
era of the plantations, sometimes hiding from the 
English authorities, he planned to write a history of 
Ireland, and afterwards travelled up and down col- 
lecting materials for his work. He was generally 
welcomed and trusted, and was allowed to use an 
enormous number of manuscripts and books. His 
history, the Forus Feasa ar Eirinn, was written 1629- 
1634. With some defects, largely because of lack of 
critical spirit, it remains nevertheless a source of first 
importance, since the author had access to many 
pieces of information now lost except as they are pre- 
served in his writing. Keating, as the work is cited 
nowadays, was never published until recently, but in 
numerous manscript copies it long circulated through 
Ireland and remains the monument and classic model 
of Irish prose. 

Mention must also be made of another body of 
writing, which though possessing little direct literary 
value, is not only of the greatest importance to 
scholars learned in old Irish things but represents a 
great deal of the character and spirit of times past. 
The ancient tribal customary law of the Gaelic in- 
habitants, known as the Brehon Laws, was at first 
transmitted from teacher to pupil in verse to be mem- 
orized, but after a while was codified in writing, in 
the time of St. Patrick, according to legend, though 
little of the text as we have it now goes back farther 
than the eighth century. The collection of the An- 
cient Laws of Ireland, Senchus Mor, was published 



IRISH LANGUAGE 333 

in the nineteenth century, and these records of Celtic 
custom have greatly assisted students of Irish history 
and many who deal with primitive and comparative 
law, like Sir Henry Maine and Frederick Seebohm. 
The conquest and confiscations of the seventeenth 
century brought such depression and despair as to 
make almost impossible any further great develop- 
ment of the native Irish literature and writing. The 
best men went abroad, and those who stayed in Ire- 
land were bowed too low to have much heart or 
strength for such things. English was now the of- 
ficial language, the speech of the colonists, who were 
the upper classes, and of all who supported the gov- 
ernment or knelt down before it. The old Irish 
schools and places of learning had nearly disappeared, 
and children of the natives sought, when they could, 
an education abroad, in Rome or in Paris. By these 
exiles some writing was done, particularly the trans- 
lating from Irish into Latin of books of devotion. In 
Ireland itself nothing of magnitude or importance 
was done in Gaelic after the middle of the seven- 
teenth century. The old literary treasures of the 
Irish were despised or little known by the conquerors, 
and, indeed, were in danger of disappearing alto- 
gether. One of the finest and most pathetic things 
in Irish history is the devotion with which Irishmen, 
often in the midst of incredible and disheartening toil, 
made it a labor of love to copy over the manuscripts 
of the past, and preserve them for a future which 
might never come. Often, as I have said above, the 



334 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

old histories and writings did perish, but many of 
them have been preserved, and more were for a great 
while kept alive in the memories of the peasants and 
handed down from one generation to another. 

Even when fortune was so low, however, there was 
a great deal of writing of poems. The conditions of 
the time caused the decline and destruction of the pro- 
fessional literary classes, who had before been the 
creators of Irish literature. There occurred one last 
great outburst of bardic composition early in the 
seventeenth century. Then, in the midst of the mis- 
fortunes of their country the bards turned to the 
common people, and wrote more simply, more nat- 
urally, and more freely, abandoning the extremely 
complicated meters and the great obscurity which had 
formerly characterized Irish poetical writing when 
patronized by the upper classes. During the 
eighteenth century Irish verse expresses the sorrow 
and longing of the people, and small pieces were 
composed without number. Even this gradually 
dwindled and shrunk away, and at last in the nine- 
teenth century, about the time of the famine, with the 
destruction or departure of so many of the Celtic in- 
habitants, the almost complete loss of hope, and the 
abandoning of the Celtic language, Irish literature 
seemed to come to an end. If the old treasures were 
to be remembered, so it seemed, they must be rendered 
into English, and this was done sometimes by scholars 
and poets — by Sir Samuel Ferguson, perhaps, best 
of all. 



IRISH LANGUAGE 335 

But about the middle of the nineteenth century, 
after O'Connell had got Catholic emancipation but 
failed to get repeal of the Union, when the great 
famine had ruined the Celtic people, and the outlook 
seemed hopeless, Young Ireland, led by men like 
Gavan Duffy and Davis, who refused to despair of 
their country, made strong and deliberate efforts to 
arouse the spirit of Irish nationality, and attempted 
to do this largely through recalling the Irish literature 
of the past. The Nation, their strong and vigorous 
paper, had as a motto, "To create and foster public 
opinion in Ireland — to make it racy of the soil." 
Duffy himself collected a volume of Anglo-Irish and 
Celtic ballads, and Young Ireland soon began to pub- 
lish in the Nation original poems. The beautiful 
Irish Melodies of Moore were the lament for some- 
thing gone and lost, but these writings were filled 
with strong and passionate hope for the future. This 
was, indeed, the beginning of a revival of Irish nation- 
ality, something that O'Connell had neither at- 
tempted nor, perhaps, been able to accomplish. The 
work halted after a while, and was almost lost to sight, 
and certainly little recked of outside Ireland during 
the Home Rule period of Parnell and John Red- 
mond. 

But again it appeared. About the end of the nine- 
teenth century began an Irish literary revival, which 
was partly a manifestation of English literature and 
partly a rebirth of Irish spirit and feeling. What 
was written in the English language has been one of 



336 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the most vital and distinctive parts of literary activity 
in English during the last generation, but it merges 
directly into another movement which has been the 
revival of the Irish past and of Irish national as- 
pirations. 

Mr. George Bernard Shaw is only slightly of this 
movement, though one of the most brilliant figures 
during the course of its period, and notwithstanding 
that in some of his work he criticises England's ad- 
ministration in Ireland. Like Oscar Wilde, he is one 
of the great figures in modern English dramatic 
writing, in which he excels through remarkable bril- 
liancy and power of his dialogue. The same is true, 
though less so, of George Moore. He did deliber- 
ately ally himself with the literary movement going 
on about Dublin and even wrote plays for the Irish 
Literary Theater; but his aptitude and his power 
have been in another field, and it is as master of real- 
ism in English fiction that he is best known. 

The "Celtic Revival" in its literary aspect actually 
began with the work of a group of new poets and 
was continued and carried forward by a new school 
of dramatic writers. The poetry, which some critics 
have mistakenly declared was first inspired by study 
of the French decadents, was for a while merely 
imitative and not very deep. But presently Mr. W. 
B. Yeats, among others, began using with great skill 
and effect the stories and spirit of old Irish legend 
and folk-lore. In 1889 he published his "Wander- 
ings of Oisin," which has been regarded as the be- 






IRISH LANGUAGE 337 

ginning of this Irish renaissance. There was not in 
the work of these writers much that was directly con- 
nected with the revival of Irish nationality, for they 
created a realm of poetry far remote from politics 
and the clash of peoples ; their spirit was one of aloof- 
ness from the world in which they lived, their stories 
and their characters were vague, shadowy, and dis- 
tant, and were of general types rather than Irish; 
yet they revived some of the dreaminess and mystery 
of old Celtic romance, and their stories were some- 
times of Medb, Conchobar, and Deirdre. 

More important and later, there grew up about 
Dublin a school of drama, which revived the old Irish 
spirit and embodied some of what had survived into 
the present, since its work was based partly upon an- 
cient Irish legends and partly upon observation of the 
peasants in west Ireland, where Celtic character and 
speech had survived more than anywhere else. Its 
leaders were working here in new fields, and were 
able to give a reality and spontaneity to their work 
which speedily made it great and important; though 
critics believe that it has now passed the time of its 
real originality and vigor, and becoming already arti- 
ficial has entered upon its decline. However that be, 
the Irish theater was one of the most striking and 
vigorous literary movements of the beginning of the 
twentieth century; it had great importance in Ire- 
land, and everywhere aroused interest and attention. 

Some distinguished writers contributed to this 
work. Lady Gregory wrote several plays herself, 



338 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

"Kincora" about Brian's time and "The Gaol Gate" 
of the present among others, and through her interest 
and activity became almost the patroness of the 
movement. Moreover, she brought back in marvel- 
lous fashion the wonders of old Gaelic romance by 
translations into English, such as "Cuchulain of 
Muirthemne" and "Gods and Fighting Men." Mr. 
Yeats did some of his best work in the dramatic 
writing of this time: "The Countess Cathleen," 
"The Land of Heart's Desire," "Deirdre," and, 
above all, "Cathleen ni Houlihan," which has seemed 
to typify Ireland subject to the conqueror. Mr. 
George W. Russell ("A. E.") is less famous for his 
plays than for a splendid body of .writing in prose 
and in verse ; with Mr. Yeats and Mr. Douglas Hyde 
he has led the Irish revival through most of its 
course. Above all of them was J. M. Synge, one of 
the greatest of modern dramatists who have written 
in English. The earlier part of his life was spent 
abroad, where he studied the literatures of the con- 
tinent, particularly of France, but his last ten years 
were on the Arran Islands, or the lonely west coast 
of Ireland among the Irish peasantry, in the hush 
and desolation of Connaught. He, like Yeats, stood 
apart from the currents of thought about him. His 
interest was in art, not politics; the characters and 
the passions of his plays are less Irish than of all 
humankind; yet, while he is using the English lan- 
guage, he is also writing of Ireland and things Irish, 
however aloof his writings may seem from Sinn Fein. 



IRISH LANGUAGE 339 

Most readers now know his "Riders to the Sea," "The 
Playboy of the Western World," "The Well of the 
Saints," and, best of them all, "Deirdre of the Sor- 
rows." Many of the plays of this school were pro- 
duced at the Abbey Theater in Dublin, which be- 
came the center of the dramatic movement. 

The work of these writers, especially the poems 
and the plays, has been taken up by ardent Irish 
nationalists, to whom it represents Ireland revived 
and the greatness of Ireland's soul. And yet it 
should be said that it goes much less far than many 
others desired, often took what seemed feeble interest 
in the great problems of Ireland's present, and some- 
times, as in "The Playboy of the Western World," 
seemed to belittle Irish character rather than exalt it. 
Not so much, then, did the work of these writers lead 
to the extreme nationalism and ambition of Sinn Fein 
as what developed from the efforts of the Gaelic 
League. 

For a great many years the Irish language had 
seemed approaching complete extinction, with obliv- 
ion of old Irish character and ideals not far away. 
But some desired greatly that this should not be, since 
if Ireland was to keep individuality and Irish charac- 
ter its people must retain their Irish speech, it was 
said. In 1876 there had been founded a Society for 
the Preservation of the Irish Language. From it 
later came the Gaelic Union, upon which in 1893, Mr. 
Douglas Hyde, poet, student of Irish and of the old 
folk-lore, together with some of his friends, estab- 



340 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

lished the Gaelic League. It was instituted for the 
purpose of reviving the Irish language, and with it the 
old culture, customs, and amusements. I shall have 
to speak elsewhere of the political development which 
succeeded and almost obscured this movement; of 
how in the years following groups of ardent men and 
women, giving much thought to the glories that had 
been, dreamed also of a new and strong Ireland in 
the future, an Ireland very different from that which 
Englishmen with best intention were trying to con- 
struct, for if their way could be had, they would purge 
the island of all traces of British influence and of all 
connection with the Empire, and make an Ireland 
purely Irish. It was not with such thoughts but 
rather with the Irish language and literature that the 
movement at first was concerned. The brilliant 
literary and artistic revival in Dublin did not satisfy 
the adherents of the Gaelic League, since that was an 
Anglo-Irish movement, while they would revive, if 
it were possible, in a modern age, Irish speech and 
Irish letters, the old Irish system of thought and way 
of looking at things, revive them, take what was best 
in them, and adapt them to the time of the present. 
They conceived that small as Ireland was she had 
within her something of priceless worth handed down 
from olden times, which might instruct and regenerate 
the world. 

Accordingly, under the stimulus of the League the 
study of Irish was taken up with enthusiasm by many 
persons in private; and the zeal with which men and 



IRISH LANGUAGE 341 

women, often after long working hours, have given 
their remaining time to learn the old tongue is one of 
the interesting things about contemporary Ireland. 
Efforts had before been made to have Irish taught in 
the schools ; they were now continued with better suc- 
cess. Down to 1900 with few exceptions English was 
the language of instruction, but it was not long be- 
fore Erse was taught in many of the schools of the 
island. As the language became more widely known, 
there was more reading of the Irish literature which 
had come down, and while for the most part, doubt- 
less, the students had little more than a smattering of 
the strange tongue, there were some in whom the old 
writings aroused the finest and best exaltation, who 
not only read with ardor and devotion, but began a 
revival of Irish literature, expressing themselves and 
their age in the Irish tongue. 

There was a quiet idealist, Padraic Pearse, who 
studied unceasingly the old language, and presently 
founded St. Enda's School, in which he proposed to 
carry on the education of Irish youths "as though the 
centuries of English occupation and culture had never 
been, and Irish Ireland were a reality." * Irish dress, 
customs, and language were part of the life of this 
school. Indeed, he appeared as one of the modern 
reformers of education, when he put into effect the 
ancient custom of fosterage, thus adapting in his 
pedagogy something of the tribal spirit of his land. 

1 Shane Leslie, The Irish Issue in Its American Aspect, p. 82, 



342 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

It was not long before boys came to the institution 
from all over the country, and masters and pupils be- 
came active in the Gaelic revival and the impulse of 
Sinn Fein. While study of the Irish past was awak- 
ening new spirit and leading to incalculable results, 
the founders of the movement continued to forward 
the study of Irish, the reading of Celtic litera- 
ture, speaking in Erse, and the writing and act- 
ing of plays. The attention of outsiders was at- 
tracted. Instead of Patrick or Edmund or John 
Irishmen now called themselves Padraic or Eamonn 
or Sean. Travellers began to notice that the street 
names in Dublin were not only in English but the 
stranger signs of Irish as well — the Latin letters, to 
be sure, but in curious form perhaps derived from 
half-uncial script. 

All of this was accompanied by a literary revival 
far more truly Irish to those who made it than that 
which was done in the English language. Even 
though the "Celtic" or Anglo-Irish literary revival 
was in the English language, much of its work was 
Irish in spirit and based on the traditions of the coun- 
try's past; but this was not enough for disciples of 
the Gaelic League. They desired a revival in which 
the writing should be in Irish, and while they often 
used English to express the spirit within them, they 
attempted to create a contemporary Gaelic literature 
also. Padraic Pearse, in the days before his tragic 
greatness, wrote much in Celtic; Dr. Hyde collected 
the old folk-stories and published compositions of his 



IRISH LANGUAGE 343 

own; and there have been many poems and some 
plays. A great deal of this writing has been done, 
but except for its political bearing, it has attracted 
little attention outside of the island. 

What will come in the future is uncertain. The 
Celtic Revival and, much more, the Gaelic League 
supplied the bases upon which Sinn Fein was able 
to do its work of arousing an Irish nationality so un- 
compromising and intense that at last most of the 
people seemed determined to dissolve all connection 
with England. The reformers believed that the in- 
habitants of Ireland must become Gaelic in habits of 
thought and speech, and that English should be 
dropped or used merely for intercourse with out- 
siders. Certainly the champions of this school have 
pushed forward their work with vigor and some suc- 
cess. And yet, with respect to the language, they 
are probably striving for what cannot be done. Most 
probably their efforts will fail substantially in the end 
because of two great difficulties, which are the lack of 
uniform standard in the Irish language itself, and 
after all the superior attraction of English. 

It is not that Gaelic is a poor and rigid tongue, 
representing only a primitive stage in the develop- 
ment of speech, and not capable of such change as 
would bring it into use for a new and different civil- 
ization, far more complex and extended than that of 
its earlier time. Actually the Celtic of Ireland is 
very rich in vocabulary, containing in excess of 80,000 
words, many more than some other tongues once 



344 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

great and still used in the present, and the structure 
and genius of the language is such that it offers ex- 
traordinary facilities for forming new words, like 
German nowadays or Greek long ago. The gram- 
matical structure is simple, and in character the 
language is rich and expressive. The spelling and 
pronunciation, however, are much worse and much 
more difficult even than the English. But the great 
difficulty is that there is no one standard of Irish at 
present, which may be adopted by those who desire 
to restore the language to general use. 

It is well known that in earlier times in most coun- 
tries of airy extent each locality developed its dialect 
or language, and that uniformity of speech over any 
large area usually followed long after political con- 
solidation or the erecting of strong central rule. 
There are still well recognized parts of the German 
language, and the Italian of Venetia is considerably 
different from that of Sicily and Naples. In Spain 
the Catalan remains distinct from Castilian, and 
Provencal and Breton linger on in France. In 
France and in England, indeed, most of the dialects 
or languages of the different parts have long since 
largely disappeared in the presence of one national 
language, which has come to be the speech of all edu- 
cated people and is used for publications and books; 
and the constant teaching in schools and the daily 
reading of newspapers make the general acceptance 
of the standard language easy and a matter of course. 
But for a long time this was the case neither in Eng- 



IRISH LANGUAGE 345 

land nor France nor anywhere else, and the standard 
language which is now used in the schools and the 
press has been established through the operation of 
very definite causes. In Germany the publication of 
Luther's translation of the Bible in the midst of the 
Reformation had most to do with fixing High Ger- 
man as the speech of most who spoke German; and 
nothing contributed more to beget uniformity in Eng- 
land than the publishing of translations of the Bible, 
especially King James's translation at the beginning 
of the seventeenth century, since for a long while it 
was read and re-read in numberless households until 
it was of the very fiber of the minds and thought of 
a great many people. In France the same result was 
gradually brought about through the exceeding im- 
portance and brilliancy of Paris the capital, and the 
literature and edicts which thence went forth. Such 
causes were not operative in Ireland. There was no 
united nation, with a splendid capital and strong gov- 
ernment to influence and direct its national life. Nor 
was there ever any one book in Irish of general and 
supreme importance to mold the language of all the 
people. The New Testament was translated into 
Irish in 1603 directly from the Greek, before the ap- 
pearance of King James's version in England. But 
the English government had no desire, apparently, to 
see the publication of a book which might create the 
very spirit of nationality which it desired to destroy; 
and the Irish themselves wanted nothing to do with 
the Reformation or religion of their oppressors, and 



346 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

clung to Catholicism, which, while it may not have 
forbidden the use of the Bible generally by the people, 
has usually not encouraged it. The prose of Keating 
in the seventeenth century did become a standard, 
but such writing could not, in the nature of things, 
have such profound and wide-spread influence as the 
Bible. Accordingly, no one form of Irish superseded 
the others, and at present there are three well-recog- 
nized dialects in the island. Irishmen can under- 
stand all of them, but there are differences. And so, 
when attempt is made to revive the Gaelic speech, the 
advocates of the scheme have to choose one from out 
of the three, where no one has undoubted title to be 
taken. 

I think, however, that the greatest of all the diffi- 
culties is the mere presence and position of English. 
Britain is close at hand with ten times the number of 
inhabitants, and the language of these people is now 
the language of most of the people of Ireland. With 
the people of Britain a great part of the business of 
Ireland is done, and will continue to be done. Even 
if Gaelic had come down to all the inhabitants of Ire- 
land without break through a long and unbroken suc- 
cession of Irish-speaking ancestors, a great many 
Irishmen nowadays would find it advantageous or 
necessary to know English. Moreover, the attractive 
and assimilative power of English is very great: 
Welsh continues to flourish vigorously right beside it, 
but only one-seventh of the people of Wales do not 



IRISH LANGUAGE 347 

understand English, and more than half of them do 
not use the Welsh tongue; in the Highlands of Scot- 
land few of the people now do not understand Eng- 
lish; and in the Isle of Man none at all. As to Ire- 
land, the English language has steadily encroached 
upon the Gaelic, though the British government 
makes no deliberate effort to bring this about. In 
Posen the utmost efforts of the German authorities 
could not drive out Polish, but in Ireland, where the 
government has supported instruction in Gaelic in 
the schools, the old language has with difficulty held 
its own. The average person cannot very conven- 
iently learn two languages, and while sentiment and 
nationalist feeling will cause many a Welshman or 
inhabitant of north Scotland to cling to the Celtic 
speech of his fathers, while he learns the English 
which it is necessary for him to use, it will probably 
be much less easy to get Irishmen who use English 
to learn a strange and difficult tongue because of na- 
tional sentiment and feeling. Hostility to England 
and the enthusiasm of recent years have caused great 
numbers of people to begin the study of Celtic, but 
it is said that very few of them have arrived at any 
proficiency in the study. 

Ireland has often failed to fulfill predictions made 
about her, and the elements of the problem are in- 
calculable; but granted that the attempted revival of 
Gaelic there has met with considerable success, and 
that the spirit of the Gaelic Revival has wrought im- 



348 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

mense changes and may bring about alterations still 
more profound, it is none the less my opinion that 
English will continue for a long time to be used by 
most of the inhabitants of the country. 



CHAPTER II 

SINN FEIN 

Sinn Fein is definitely the policy of all small nationalities 
. . . Sooner or later they will come to terms with Ulster. 
Already they have destroyed the power of the Irish party, 
and in the future they promise to check if not annul the 
political power of the priest. . . . Sinn Fein is a fever, 
against which there is no appeal. 

Shane Leslie, The Irish Issue in Its American 

Aspect, pp. 73, 80. 

WHEN in the terrible days at the end of July, 
1914, England, unprepared for war and not 
desiring it, drifted toward the great gulf, when the 
world seemed dark, and the wings of the angel of 
death could almost be heard, all factions of English- 
men hushed their political disputes, and stood with 
face towards the foe. Even with respect to the Irish 
question, bitterness seemed for the moment forgot; 
Nationalists and Covenanters of Ulster, who had 
lacked but little of beginning civil war to decide the 
question of Home Rule, now offered themselves to 
Britain for service abroad. The old suspicion, the 
violent passion, the strange, fratricidal wrath, were 
put aside for a moment in the rush of patriotism and 
generous emotion. The Home Rule Bill soon be- 
came a law ; but in behalf of Ulster, since it was real- 

349 



350 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ized that circumstances outside the bounds of the Irish 
question had ended the discussion for a time, the 
Home Rule Act was suspended for the period of the 
duration of the war. The Unionists were not satis- 
fled but they acquiesced, while Mr. Redmond, with 
warm and generous loyalty, which afterwards brought 
him reproach, but which will be remembered to his 
honor for a great while hereafter, pledged the serv- 
ices of Irishmen for the Empire in the struggle just 
begun. 

For a while Irish matters were still. All through 
the British Isles men and women were breathless be- 
fore the mighty and horrible events unfolding with 
such awful swiftness. The hour of the Empire had 
come : she had entered on the greatest of all her wars. 
Like an avalanche the German armies rushed through 
Belgium, over France, straight upon Paris, and 
though almost by a miracle they were turned aside 
in the memorable weeks of September, people knew 
there was confronting them a struggle such as never 
before. Britain was unready, and it was a question 
whether she could be ready in time. Every resource 
went to preparing for a contest in which almost every- 
thing but the navy had to be built up from the be- 
ginning. Soldiers and sailors must volunteer in in- 
credible numbers; the industrial organization must be 
used to make England a gigantic arsenal for her al- 
lies; there was an infinitude of things to be done im- 
mediately, with greatest difficulty. So it was that 
domestic issues, like woman's suffrage, social read- 



SINN FEIN 351 

justment, and the Irish question, were not only put 
aside for the time, but by most people nearly forgot- 
ten. It was evident that reform had to be postponed 
while the English-speaking peoples fought for their 
existence. 

Accordingly, of the Irish question little was heard 
for more than a year after the beginning of the war. 
The fine attitude of the leaders of the Irish Nation- 
alist Party was known, it was believed that Irishmen 
from the south and from the north were volunteering, 
and so far as could be judged the heart of Ireland 
appeared to be with the Allies. But we know now 
that many things lay hidden. Over Ireland the veil 
of the censor was thrown. It seemed that this was 
as it must be, from the universal treachery and in- 
trigue of the Germans. Yet, after a while it was 
rumored more and more in the United States that 
Irish conditions were disquieting, that Irishmen were 
taking small part in the war, and that England was 
forced to be on unceasing guard. But the rush of 
events followed so swiftly that little thought was given 
to the matter, until suddenly came what at first 
seemed the inexplicable news, that revolt had broken 
out in Dublin, that rebels had sought help from the 
Germans, and set up an Irish republic. Then once 
more the Irish question came back into the center of 
interest, and as the thing was more studied, it was 
seen that these startling new events had arisen be- 
cause in recent years there had been growing up, 
for the most part unknown to people everywhere else, 



352 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

a new Ireland with aspirations and ideals very dif- 
ferent from those of the dominant Nationalist Party. 
A new, strong, independent thing had arisen, silently 
spreading its influence and power, partly despised 
and partly ignored, but soon to be the most important 
element in Irish life. This was Sinn Fein. 

Sinn Fein means "ourselves" or "ourselves alone." 
Its purpose was Ireland for the Irish, in spirit, in 
politics, in every aspect of life. Now that we look 
back upon it with better understanding it is seen to 
be merely one of the instances of national awakening 
which characterized the last century or more. In 
France this spirit had saved the French Revolution 
and carried it over half Europe against a world in 
arms; there had been much of it, sometimes uncouth 
and unpleasing, as the American people stretched 
over a continent with eyes on the destiny before them; 
far in the East it created the new Japan ; it made Rus- 
sians believe in a grand destiny to come; silently it 
fashioned the Germany which threatened and horri- 
fied the world ; it urged forward the Servians to seem- 
ing destruction. It had worked not only amidst great 
nations; it had invigorated small ones, and inspired 
provinces and subject peoples to hope for a day of 
their own. Long ago it had helped to free Belgium 
from Holland, and more recently Norway from 
Sweden. It has inspired the Poles, it has inspired 
the Czechs with hopes that have just been fulfilled. 
In the modern Irish period it has gradually been more 
potent, though often lost for a while. It had reap- 



SINN FEIN 353 

peared distinctly with the Young Ireland movement 
after 1840; now it was resurrected once more by the 
Irish revival and Sinn Fein. Everywhere the devel- 
opment of nationalism has been characterized by com- 
mon features: the consciousness of individuality, 
strong desire on the part of the people to be them- 
selves and develop themselves in their own way, to 
have their own character, their own customs, their 
own language, their own literature, their own laws; 
and usually it has been accompanied by strong belief 
in superiority over other peoples and by belief that a 
wonderful and glorious future lay ahead. Sinn Fein 
was the renaissance of Irish nationalism which began 
in the early years of the twentieth century, which at 
its worst was fantastic and impractical, at its best vig- 
orous, lofty, and pure. 

Sinn Fein differed very greatly from the Irish Na- 
tionalist movement which aimed at Home Rule. The 
Nationalists under John Redmond were like the asso- 
ciates of Isaac Butt: they would compromise, and ac- 
cept of the existing situation that which it seemed 
wise to take. Ireland was a part of the British Em- 
pire ; so they would let it remain. It was closely con- 
nected with Great Britain; they believed that was as 
it must be. Irish character and custom were often 
different from the British, but they recognized the 
essential fact that most people in Ireland spoke the 
language used over the Channel, and they felt them- 
selves really to be members of one community in the 
British Isles. What they wanted was local autonomy, 



354 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

a responsible Irish government, a government depend- 
ent upon Irish consent, and in purely Irish matters 
acting first in the best interests of Ireland. They 
thought that there was nothing unreasonable in this 
demand, but something which the English would wish 
to concede when once they understood the situation. 
With so much, they declared, they would be content. 
They intended that a self-governing Ireland should 
be a loyal partner of England, and a part of the Brit- 
ish Empire. 

Very different were the ideas of the followers of 
Sinn Fein. They desired Ireland to be altogether 
free, and if their way could be had, they would purge 
the island of all traces of British influence and end all 
connection with the Empire. Ireland should not only 
be free, but purely Irish. They would revive the old 
glories, which across departed centuries they looked 
back on so fondly, in reconstructing the old character 
and civilization of Erin. Sinn Fein was at first 
merely an aspect of the Irish revival, but soon it be- 
came the great new force in the politics of the island. 

Much of the work undertaken by its adherents was 
excellent, especially the cultivation of Gaelic litera- 
ture and speech, tending as it did to revive the best 
of the past and strengthen Irish character in the pres- 
ent. But after a while it attracted unfavorable at- 
tention as the more ardent and extreme carried their 
activities into the political field, and began to work 
more openly for the establishment of an independent 
Ireland. So far as such things can be said to start at 



SINN FEIN 355 

any particular time, the definite beginning may be put 
at about 1905. Two years before this a small group 
of extremists had founded the Irish National Coun- 
cil at Dublin. It was a center of disloyalty to Eng- 
land, and bitterly opposed the hospitable reception 
of King Edward VII, who visited Ireland at that 
time. Its influence as a separate organization soon 
declined, and it was merged in the Sinn Fein move- 
ment, but in Sinn Fein it was presently one of the 
guiding forces. Sinn Fein was soon connected also 
with the Irish Republican Brotherhood, another so- 
ciety disloyal to the British government. Some of 
the partisans of Sinn Fein advocated adoption of the 
methods of passive resistance which had once helped 
the Hungarians to obtain their desires. They would 
withdraw from the parliamentary activities of the Na- 
tionalists, who were making such slow progress in 
getting Home Rule as to disappoint the more ardent 
and impatient, take no part in British politics, have 
nothing to do with the British government, boycott 
British goods, and, if possible, establish an informal 
Irish assembly supported by public opinion, and 
withdraw litigation from established Irish courts to 
have the cases settled informally by Irishmen them- 
selves. For the most part if the movement attracted 
attention in Great Britain, it was regarded as only 
one of the many fantastic things which arise in the 
politics of a great domain. But soon the leaders, 
who had generally been political idealists so far as 
they were concerned with politics, planning to regain 



356 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the independence of Ireland through passive resist- 
ance or by other means not clearly conceived, adopted 
active and troublesome policies or ceased to guide the 
course of Sinn Fein, and more and more the move- 
ment was directed by violent extremists. They be- 
gan to act vigorously in discouraging enlistments in 
the British army, and fomenting what seemed to the 
authorities disloyalty and sedition. Meanwhile con- 
nections had been established with another revolu- 
tionary society, the Clan-na-Gael, in America. 

By 1907 adherents of Sinn Fein spoke of the possi- 
bility of Irish independence through rebellion, of the 
imminence of war between Germany and England, 
and the necessity of being ready if this desirable con- 
flict came to pass. By this time Sinn Fein, formerly 
looked upon as something indefinite, a movement or 
a spirit actuating men, was regarded by the authori- 
ties, so far as they had correct information concern- 
ing it, as a dangerous revolutionary society. Steadily 
the scope of its work was extended. It had arisen 
in Dublin, but in 1907 and 1908 it established nearly 
a hundred branches in various parts of the country. 
It now began to try for control of some of the political 
machinery of the island, but as yet it failed com- 
pletely in contest with the Nationalist Party. In 
1908 Sinn Fein leaders declared that by natural and 
constitutional right Ireland was a sovereign state. 
In the next year there was a vigorous anti-recruiting 
campaign, and Irishmen who joined the army, navy, 
or Royal Irish Constabulary were stigmatized as 



SINN FEIN 357 

traitors to their people. Year by year Sinn Feiners 
went further. They attempted to mar the reception 
of George V in Ireland, as their predecessors had 
acted during the visit of his father. In 1910 the an- 
nual congress in Dublin declared in favor of with- 
drawing Irish representatives from the parliament of 
the United Kingdom, improving the organization of 
Sinn Feiners throughout the country, and forming 
vigilance committees to urge on the anti-recruiting 
campaign. Violent and extreme speeches were made, 
and a great many leaflets and posters distributed to 
deter all enlistment. 

As the great struggle began for Home Rule, they 
stood coldly aloof from the work being done by the 
Nationalist Party, and would have nothing to do with 
such partial fulfilment of their aspirations as a grant 
merely of self-government in Irish affairs. They 
wanted such entire independence that not a vestige of 
British rule would be left in Ireland. But in spite 
of all this activity they did not as yet attract much 
attention from the government, used as it was to deal- 
ing with disaffection in Ireland but imbued now with 
generous and conciliatory feeling. There could be 
no doubt that a new and troublesome organization was 
carrying on a virulent campaign, annoying and often 
thoroughly disloyal, but it was thought to be the work 
of a few ardent spirits more troublesome than im- 
portant, who had little influence with most of the 
Irish people. Certainly the voters continued to elect 
Nationalist representatives pledged to work for Home 



358 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Rule; when Sinn Feiners spoke they seemed not to 
reach many people; when they contested parliamen- 
tary districts they could not win a single election. It 
was true that many respectable people were joining 
the movement, but it was the non-political aspects of 
the cause which seemed to attract them most, those 
teachings which advocated social and industrial im- 
provement, and also the fresh and vigorous intellec- 
tual parts of it. In accordance with the prevailing 
British policy of tolerance, and the belief that the dis- 
contented and visionary should be allowed free ex- 
pression so long as they did no actual harm, the Sinn 
Fein movement was rather neglected than disturbed 
by officials. Its leaders were thought to be either 
idealists and visionaries or noisy extremists, and most 
of its followers harmless. It seemed to have little in- 
fluence and as yet no actual power. 

But the leaders of Sinn Fein glowed with the ardor 
of a cause which seemed sacred to them. They left 
nothing undone for its advancement and the winning 
of converts. Always the dominant idea was that of 
the originators of the thing, that there should be an 
Irish Ireland with as little of English spirit and influ- 
ence as possible. While most Irishmen looked for- 
ward more and more confidently to the getting of 
Home Rule, the adherents of Sinn Fein awaited it in 
sullen disgust, and perhaps would have been better 
pleased had the Home Rule scheme failed completely ; 
for to them it could be nothing more than a half -meas- 
ure at best, and actually a dangerous thing, inasmuch 



SINN FEIN 359 

as Irishmen might be beguiled into contentment with 
connection with England and forget the bright ideal 
of Sinn Fein, which was independence entire and com- 
plete. Likewise the operation of the laws for the 
purchase of land gave them little satisfaction and in- 
spired no gratitude at all. They were unwilling that 
Irishmen should not rely entirely on themselves, and 
thought it an evil thing for them to take assistance 
from the British government, which anyhow, they 
said, was only selling back in a grudging way that 
which once had been stolen. Constantly Sinn Feiners 
drew themselves farther and farther away from all 
British activity and influence. Constantly their de- 
fiance became uglier, more bitter, and more open. 
They said and published insulting and treasonable 
things which never would they have dared to utter 
in the Germany, to which they were beginning to look 
for assistance, things which only a strong govern- 
ment could afford to overlook, and only a very liberal 
one would be willing to tolerate. Afterwards, in- 
deed, there were some who thought that the leniency 
f not the supineness of the British government had not 
a little to do in bringing about the catastrophe which 
followed. Had it been stronger and more vigorous 
in repression, men said, its enemies would not have 
presumed to go to the lengths they did. 

Some idea of the character of Sinn Fein and its 
work at this time can be gained from a study of one 
of its most prominent and vigorous leaders, who had 
been Constance Gore-Booth, and was now the 



360 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Countess de Markievicz. Her antecedents were much 
like those of Parnell. She was the daughter of one 
of the greatest land-owners in the west of Ireland, 
English by birth, Protestant in religion. She was 
connected with many aristocratic English families. 
Strong, vigorous, and filled to overflowing with en- 
ergy, she studied art in Paris, married a Polish 
Count, gradually allied herself with new movements 
and democratic tendencies, and returning to Dublin 
made her house one of the principal centers of Sinn 
Fein and the extreme Irish movement. Dublin was 
at this time a place of extraordinary intellectual ac- 
tivity, and of this her residence became one of the 
principal seats. "It is hard now to think of that 
hospitable house in Leinster Road with all the life 
gone out of it," wrote one who had known her there. 
"Every one coming to Dublin who was interested in 
plays, painting, the Gaelic language, suffrage, labor, 
or Irish Nationalism, visited there. The Countess 
Markievicz kept 'open house' not only for her friends, 
but for her friends' friends." * The place was full of 
books, it was often the scene of amateur dramatic 
performances, it was sometimes the hiding place of 
those whose activities had attracted the attention of 
the law, and from it the hungry laborers were fed 
during the strike of the Transport Workers. 

In 1909 Countess Markievicz did what she regarded 
as her most important work. In England, under the 

i Margaret Skinnider, Doing My Bit for Ireland (New York, 1917), 
p. 10, 



SINN FEIN 361 

increasing menace of German power, the Boy Scout 
movement had begun and attained large proportions. 
The English leaders wished to establish a similar or- 
ganization in Ireland. Padraic Pearse was asked to 
assist, but declined since he did not wish to do anything 
which might help to make closer the ties between 
the two peoples. Then Countess Markievicz con- 
ceived the idea of forming an Irish national boys' or- 
ganization. She had little encouragement from her 
associates at first, for they thought the training and 
arming of boys twelve or thirteen years old a useless 
labor, but her reply was: "In ten years these boys 
will be men." 2 In all respects did this organization 
partake of the spirit of Sinn Fein and the Irish re- 
vival: the training was modelled upon that of the 
ancient Irish system; the boys learned the methods 
of the old Irish champions ; and they had the name of 
the ancient heroic Irish military brotherhood, Fianna. 
Under the tuition of the Countess and her friends 
these boys imbibed the fiercest and most extreme feel- 
ing of intense nationality. Their oath of loyalty 
early attracted the attention of foes of Home Rule, 
who believed that Irishmen would not be faithful to 
the Empire, if opportunity came to break the tie al- 
together: "I promise to work for the Independence 
of Ireland, never to join England's armed forces, and 
to obey my superior officers," was their declaration. 3 

2 The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and Its Martyrs: Erin's Tragic Easter, 
edited by Maurice Joy (New York, 1916), p. 348. 

3 Quoted in leaflet: Irish Loyalty (?) under Home Ride (Ulster 
Unionist Council). 



362 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

These youths, however noble their ideas may have 
been, acted and were encouraged to act with all the 
insolence and uncompromising hostility which eager, 
prejudiced youth is wont to display. "We went out," 
wrote one who shared their spirit and was proud of it, 
"joined the other Fianna, and walked about the 
streets whistling rebel tunes. Whenever we passed 
a British soldier we made him take to the gutter, tell- 
ing him the streets of Dublin were no place 'for the 
likes of him.' " 4 They attacked recruiting-booths, 
and merrily sang the song which Madam had com- 
posed, and which ended : 

From a Gael with a gun the Briton will run ! 
And we'll dance at the wake of the Empire, boys ! 5 

In all this there was the strange mixture of mean 
pettiness and exalted idealism in which fanatic ardor 
rejoices when it is consecrated singly to some cause. 
As the suffragettes would poison dogs and disfigure 
works of art, and yet willingly have given their lives 
for the sake of some betterment for womankind and 
the human race, so Sinn Fein and the Fianna boys 
mingled petty and noble things in one fierce opposi- 
tion to that which they believed must .go down: they 
would sing insulting songs and pick quarrels with 
soldiers, but sacrifice themselves joyfully, as they did 
somewhat later, for what they thought was the best 
interest of their country. Often has this been before, 

4Skinnider, pp. 22, 23. 
b Skinnider, p. 24. 



SINN FEIN 363 

and often will be again, no doubt, whenever fanatic 
reformers see little and see narrowly, but see with 
terrible intensity and depth. 

Some of it all must have seemed very heartless ; and 
Englishmen, doubtless, when they knew about it, 
could scarce have understood what it meant. In 
those last ominous years when Britain lay more and 
more under the nearing shadow of conflict with Ger- 
many, and many a man and woman faced the future 
with strange and pathetic uncertainty, that war play, 
An Englishman s Home, was brought over from Eng- 
land into Ireland. The play is crude, but terrible and 
poignant enough for those who realize its meaning. 
The Countess Markievicz took the Fianna boys to see 
it on the opening night. They had pit and gallery, 
while British officers and their wives filled most of the 
rest of the theater. After a while came that part of 
the play where the German invaders appear on tlie 
stage. Then the Fianna, in their distinctive cos- 
tume, rose and sang in German "The Watch on the 
Rhine." When an English officer and others stood 
up and sang "God Save the King," they were pelted 
with eggs and vegetables, so that the performance was 
stopped. Thus ended the Dublin run of the piece, 
writes Margaret Skinnider, who relates the incident 
with approval, and who could still in 1916 think it a 
very fine thing. After the war began the Fianna 
boys went about Dublin breaking up recruiting meet- 
ings, routing the speakers, and upsetting the plat- 
forms : she declares that while this sounds like rowdy- 



364 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ism — and some will agree that it does — "it is only by 
such tests of courage and strength that the youth of a 
dominated race can acquire the self-confidence needed 
later for the real struggle." 6 They were encouraged 
to fight with the English Boy Scouts and bring home 
hats and poles as trophies; and for a while the police 
were disturbed to see Fianna boys shooting in prac- 
tice at targets made like English soldiers. 

Meanwhile a stronger weapon was being prepared: 
in the early part of 1913 the National Council of Sinn 
Fein proclaimed it to be the duty of every member to 
know well the use of arms. The Ulster Volunteers 
were already drilling in the north to resist Home Rule 
if it came; towards the end of the year the National 
Volunteers were formed in the middle and southern 
parts of the island to support it. At once the ex- 
tremists, Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Broth- 
erhood, took an active part in organizing this move- 
ment, with a view, it was believed, to getting control 
of it and using it as a weapon to carry out their plans, 
Sir Roger Casement being one of the foremost leaders 
in doing this. Progress of the National Volunteer 
movement was not great at the start, for most Irish- 
men were following the constitutional methods of 
Redmond and his associates ; but when it was believed, 
as it was early in 1914, that such an organization fur- 
nished the only means of successfully opposing the 
Ulster Volunteers, it grew very rapidly, and the Na- 
tionalist parliamentary party, which at first had 

« Skinnider, p. 23. 



SINN FEIN 365 

viewed it askance, now gave it recognition, and sought 
also to obtain the control. By the end of July, when 
England was on the verge of war, it had 160,000 mem- 
bers, and was rapidly getting on a sound military 
basis. On the eve of war Mr. Redmond declared that 
Ireland would be defended from invasion by her sons, 
and that armed Catholics of the south would be glad 
to join hands for that purpose with the armed Prot- 
estants of the north. Redmond's loyalty to England 
and his efforts soon after to encourage enlistments in 
the forces of the Empire angered the extremists who 
had no intention of helping England, and who de- 
clared that the Volunteers had been brought into ex- 
istence to fight for Ireland alone. They themselves 
were doing all they could to interfere with recruiting 
for Great Britain. Hence it was not long before 
there was a split in the organization. The Sinn Fein- 
ers fell off, and organized their adherents as the Irish 
Volunteers, while the main body from which they had 
seceded was known as the Irish National Volunteers. 
In the months which followed, the larger force 
dwindled away, the extremists joining Sinn Fein, its 
most loyal members enlisting to serve in the war. The 
Sinn Fein leaders redoubled their exertions. Some 
of them, misled by their narrow patriotism or played 
upon by German agents, began to believe that the 
hoped-for day was at hand. They had preached for 
some years that the Empire would fall before Ger- 
many, and that then Ireland's glory would revive. So 
now Sir Roger Casement and others eagerly organ- 



366 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ized and drilled the Irish Volunteers, increasing their 
efficiency and, as Irishmen became more discontented, 
steadily adding to their numbers. 

Such was Sinn Fein. There was something about 
it that was lovable and noble, beautiful and strong. 
Wherever there is intensity and sincerity, there is ever 
some nobility and strength; but the spirit which sup- 
ports them is closely allied with intolerance and big- 
oted hardness. Already Sinn Fein had brought some 
benefit to Ireland : it was teaching the new generation 
to love the best of whatever was good in the past, and 
it was making strong and self-reliant the men and 
women of the country. The intensity and reality of 
what it contained had attracted, as is always the case, 
some of the strongest and brightest minds of its time. 
There was excellent writing, much revival of old Irish 
manners and speech, some reform in education, and a 
strong and invigorating spiritual stimulus. And yet, 
there was not much that was really constructive about 
it, nor was there much of the practical good sense 
which takes things as they are and does the best that 
is to be done with them. The bulk of the Irish people 
still followed the constitutional party which was striv- 
ing for Home Rule, willing to make compromise with 
Britain, and willing to live in accord with her, as 
seemed prescribed now in the mere fate of things. 
Sinn Feiners looked little at the present, but much 
at the past long departed, which they strove to revive 
in the excellence and beauty which scholars and 
dreamers thought it had had, and much at an ideal 



SINN FEIN 367 

future which was fondly believed to be not far away. 
Otherwise most of their energy was given to oppos- 
ing and despising everything British. Ireland must 
be altogether Irish; Britain was exceedingly hateful. 
If Ireland could be free, nothing else mattered. 

What judgment shall be given upon them? Cer- 
tainly they were not wicked or depraved; but were 
they not sometimes childlike and foolish, seeing only 
a little of the things in this world, and seeing that little 
with such terrible ardor that brain and heart were on 
fire? So, as England stood beside Belgium and 
France, as she stood forth to defend all of her heri- 
tage and all that that heritage means to the world, 
she was seen by Sinn Fein only as a greedy robber 
waiting again for the spoil. And as the Germans 
went through Belgium and Poland with starvation and 
fire, with torment and rape, as spies filled the earth, 
as treaties were torn up, as ships were sunk with their 
crews, as the world was in agony, and civilization and 
humanity seemed to many to be tottering to their fall, 
Germany appeared to these Irishmen like some 
knightly champion who might strike down their tyrant 
and get them their freedom. They hated England 
so much as to like every one of her foes, and would 
gladly take such help as any of her f oemen could give. 
How little did they understand the awful stake, and 
the mighty issue for the world! What was Irish in- 
dependence that it should be preferred to the freedom 
of all peoples? How could Sinn Fein have under- 
stood Germany? Never, except for selfish and tern- 



368 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

porary reason, would she have tolerated them or any 
of their ways ; they had only to look at Lorraine and 
Schleswig and Prussian Poland. And little did they 
know modern England. Englishmen understood 
them not much as yet, but when a year later their up- 
rising and defeat had got them attention, an English- 
man could say of them in right good will: "There is 
room for Sinn Fein in the Commonwealth, room 
enough and to spare." 7 

i Barker, Ireland in the Last Fifty Years, p. 108. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EASTER REBELLION 

In the event of England finding herself engaged in a serious 
war, the regular garrison in this country would be reduced 
to about 6,000 fighting men. . . . Ireland can be freed by 
force of arms, that is the fact which ever must be borne in 
mind. . . . 

Irish Freedom, September, 1912, quoted in leaflet: 
Plain Facts about Home Rule. 
In the name of God and of the dead generations from 
which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland 
through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes 
for her freedom. 

Poblacht Na H Eireann: Proclamation 
of the Irish Republic. 

AS the winter of 1915-1916 waned into spring, 
people of the Allied countries, who had lived 
through a terrible time, entered on gray and dreary 
days with little hope except in the future. The enor- 
mous power of Germany on land, her thorough prep- 
aration, her sudden and treacherous stroke, her ruth- 
less determination to win at all cost of humanity or 
honor, had given undeniable advantage, which many 
persons believed could not be overcome. It was a ter- 
rible thing to have to believe that so much wickedness 
and cruelty could triumph: to many it seemed that 
such a triumph would set the seal upon evil and dis- 

369 



370 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

honor, so that there could be no more trust in right- 
eousness, no faith in nations or men. For Germany 
the tide had run strong: her armies had been stayed in 
the first rush on Paris, but they were not far off, and 
the Allies could not drive them out of their lines; in 
the east the attack at the Dardanelles had ended in 
failure splendid but complete; meanwhile the power 
of Russia had been, as we know now, almost entirely 
broken; Servia had been crushed, Middle Europe 
achieved; on the sea England's power was being 
sapped by submarine destruction; the weight of war 
and its sacrifices were crushing England and France. 
Germany had won, if things remained as they were; 
and there was good reason for believing that she could 
not be torn from her conquests. In this heart-break- 
ing time, when only courage and necessity held back 
despair, suddenly came news that Ireland had risen 
behind England's back, that during Easter week Dub- 
lin and other places were in the throes of a fierce in- 
surrection to establish an Irish Republic. 

"A declaration of war by any foreign power against 
the British nation is a signal for faction and rebellion 
in Ireland," said the Earl of Clare in 1800 in a speech 
on the proposed Act of Union. "The received 
maxim is, not to forego the opportunity of foreign 
war to press forward Irish claims." Ireland, he said, 
in time of danger was like a millstone hung about the 
neck of Great Britain. 1 Certainly this had been true 

i The Speech of the Right Honourable John, Earl of Ckire Lord 

rX 9 ui Tl e !l 0r ° f Ireland > in the House of Lords of Ireland, etc. 
(Dublin, 1800), republished by the Union Defence League, p 19 



THE EASTER REBELLION 371 

in the sadder days of the past, but one had hoped 
that the better relations and the wiser conduct of Eng- 
land in the generation preceding the war would at 
last have made Irishmen different. There can be no 
doubt that most of the Irish people favored the cause 
of the Entente, were loyal to the British Empire, and 
could be trusted as things were. A writer considered 
that the population might be reckoned as one-sixth 
ultra-British and anti-Irish, one-sixth extreme Irish 
and anti-British, and the other two-thirds ready for 
friendship with Great Britain. However this be, 
there was certainly not more than a small minority 
at the beginning of 1916 who desired any disturb- 
ance or who were ready to embarrass Great Britain. 
Home Rule had not gone into effect, and Irish en- 
listments were scanty, but while there was some dis- 
pleasure, most of the people seemed to realize that 
here was an awful crisis, that smaller matters must be 
postponed while greater ones were disposed of. 

This was not so with the extremists, the Irish Re- 
publican Brotherhood, the syndicalist labor organiza- 
tion, and above all with Sinn Fein. To them the im- 
mediate realization of their own particular aims was 
of more importance than anything else, and they 
would bring it about at whatever cost to anything 
else; or perhaps it would be truer to say that they 
considered other things scarcely at all. Certainly few 
Irishmen at this time sympathized with Germany ; yet 
it is undoubtedly true, if we may judge by their words, 
that the adherents of Sinn Fein, in their intense in- 



372 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

dignation and passionate impatience, had hoped for 
defeat of England by Germany, and would welcome 
German assistance for themselves. 

In 1909 a radical newspaper, working against re- 
cruiting, said: "If you prevent 500 men from enlist- 
ing you do nearly as good work as if you shot 500 men 
on the field of battle, and also you are making the 
path smoother for the approaching conquest of Eng- 
land by Germany." 2 Four years later a poster was 
widely placarded in Ireland: 

The English live in terror of Germany. War between 
England and Germany is at hand. England's cowardly and 
degenerate population won't make soldiers : not so the Ger- 
mans. They are trained and ready. What will England 
do? She'll get Irish Fools to join her Army and Navy, send 
them to fight and die for her Empire. Irish traitors have 
ever been the backbone of her Army and Navy. . . . Stand 
aside and have your revenge. Without Ireland's help Eng- 
land will go down before Germany as she would have gone 
down before the Boers had not the Irish fought her battle 
in South Africa. 3 

It was recalled in England now that Bernhardi, 
whose notorious book had just attracted so much at- 
tention, said that it was interesting to know that if 
ever war came with England, Germany would have 
allies in Ireland, who would constitute a grave anx- 
iety for England, and perhaps tie fast a portion of 
her troops. 4 After the beginning of the war, accord- 

2 Kilkenny People, December 4, 1D09. 

s Leaflet: Britons Beware! (Union Defence League). 

i London Times, September 19, 1913, 



THE EASTER REBELLION 373 

ing to a Sinn Fein writer, an anti-recruiting song of 
the Countess Markievicz was sung everywhere: 

For the Germans are going to win, me boys, 
And Ireland will have to butt in, me boys. . . . 5 

And when the rising had been put down, Irishmen 
in the internment camp at Fron-goch in Wales used 
to sing a song in which every verse ended with the 
line: "Sinn Feiners, Pro-Germans, alive, alive O!" 6 

In March, 1916, the London Times called attention 
to the growth of the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, 
and the disaffection which seemed to increase. The 
government, it said, was taking no measures to en- 
sure safety. Afterwards, when too late, the govern- 
ment of Ireland was sharply criticized for doing noth- 
ing, though repeated warnings had been given. The 
principal cause of the rebellion, said the Report of the 
Royal Commission which investigated it, was that 
lawlessness had been allowed to grow up unchecked, 
and that for some years past Ireland had been admin- 
istered on the principle that it was more expedient to 
leave law in abeyance, if collision with any faction of 
the Irish people could thereby be avoided. This was 
the policy of conciliation which the government had 
been steadily employing. It is difficult to judge. 
Perhaps it was mistaken weakness, for it did not win 
and could not frighten the most radical. Perhaps it 
was wisdom, for it seems to have done well with most 

s Skinnider, p. 224, 
P Ibid., p. 250, 



374 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

of the Irish people. But it should always he remem- 
bered that competent observers thought that one cause 
of England's failure in Ireland in 1916 was this too 
great gentleness and unwillingness to offend any- 
body. It should be remembered particularly because 
there have been so many statements to the effect that 
England made a mistake characteristic of harsh and 
dull-witted people, when she punished the leaders of 
the insurrection by imprisonment and death. She 
might better have afforded, say these critics, to have 
let them go free. Perhaps that is true also: it is very 
difficult to know; but at all events she was despised 
and condemned by Sinn Feiners when to others she 
seemed lenient and weak. All the time Sinn Fein 
leaders redoubled their activities, drilled their follow- 
ers, filling their speeches and papers with seditious 
utterances and disloyal boasts. But the British peo- 
ple were facing Germany, absorbed in the giant strug- 
gle. They stood with back to Ireland, and gave little 
heed, it would seem, to things in the other island. 

On the night of April 20 a German auxiliary 
cruiser, disguised as a merchant ship, accompanied by 
a submarine, attempted to land arms and ammunition 
in Ireland. The ship was sunk, and Sir Roger Case- 
ment, who had been brought over from Germany, was 
made prisoner. Once he had been distinguished in 
the British consular service, afterwards he was an ac- 
tive organizer of the Irish Volunteers, and more re- 
cently he had been in Germany trying to get assist- 
ance and persuade Irish prisoners to enlist in the 



; 



THE EASTER REBELLION 375 

German service. Probably a rising had been ar- 
ranged to come shortly after this attempted landing, 
because four days later, on the Monday following 
Easter, a rebellion began in Dublin and spread to 
various parts of the island. 

People awoke in Dublin that morning and learned 
with amazement that an insurrection had begun in 
their midst. The Sinn Feiners had seized the city. 
Probably substantial German assistance was hoped 
for by some of the more ignorant and enthusiastic, 
for on the next day wild rumors went about, that 
German submarines were swarming in the sea, that 
the Germans had landed in three places, fifteen thou- 
sand in one body, that German warships had de- 
feated the British navy, and that transports were 
rushing towards Ireland. Local arrangements had 
been very carefully planned, though the leaders seem 
to have had no just conception of the larger elements 
of such a task, unless it be thought that they delib- 
erately embarked upon a military enterprise which 
they knew to be hopeless. They seized the beautiful 
little park, St. Stephen's Green, in the center of the 
city, a position untenable, and made an attempt upon 
Dublin Castle which failed; but they succeeded in 
occupying the Post Office, where they severed com- 
munication by telegraph and telephone, many of the 
houses in the streets nearby, and some strong build- 
ings in other parts of the city. They were well sup- 
plied with firearms and ammunition, and easily re- 
pulsed the first efforts to dislodge them. 






376 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Shortly after noon on Easter Monday an Irish 
Republic was proclaimed. Padraic Pearse. school- 
master, a leader of Sinn Fein, visionary and idealist, 
but strong in belief in his cause, was chosen president 
and commander-in-chief. His character remains an 
enigma except to those most closely associated with 
him; some have wondered how such a man could have 
been chosen to lead a rebellion, others have seen in 
him the most fitting one to preside. Fate had touched 
him and called him forth, with but a few days more 
in the world. In those days he went forward with fine 
nobility and high exaltation, as one who scarcely walks 
among mortal men. The proclamation is fantastic 
or splendid, according as one's sympathies go. In 
the name of God, Ireland summoned her children to 
the flag. Her manhood, trained in the Irish Republi- 
can Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, and the Irish 
Citizen Army, supported by exiles in America and by 
gallant allies in Europe, had waited resolutely for 
the moment, and now struck in full confidence of vic- 
tory. "We declare the right of the people of Ireland 
to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered con- 
trol of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasi- 
ble. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign 
people and government has not extinguished the right, 
nor can it be extinguished except by the destruction 
of the Irish people. ,, In every generation that peo- 
ple had asserted their right to national freedom and 
sovereignty. Now they asserted it again, and pro- 
claimed the Irish Republic as a sovereign and inde- 






THE EASTER REBELLION 377 

pendent state. This new Republic claimed the al- 
legiance of every man and woman in Ireland. It 
guaranteed civil and religious equality. The national 
government to be set up later on was to be "repre- 
sentative of the whole people of Ireland and elected 
by the suffrages of all her men and women." The 
blessing of Most High God was invoked. Some say 
that this document was read by Pearse, others that 
it was read by Joseph Plunkett. The reading was at 
the base of Nelson's Pillar, to a crowd of women and 
children and rabble who gave it scant attention and 
knew little, perhaps, of its meaning. It was pro- 
claimed with deep emotion, but they turned from it 
at once to plunder the shops nearby, — one more in- 
stance of the sordid tragedy very often mingled with 
the sublimer things of this life. 

Next day the Republicans were easily driven from 
St. Stephen's Green, not to be held because they had 
failed to get possession of the Shelbourne Hotel 
nearby, from the roof of which their position was 
commanded by machine-gun fire. Nevertheless, they 
were strongly established in the Post Office, the City 
Hall, the Law Courts, and other places, and although 
troops were now arriving from north Ireland and over 
the Channel from England, the rebels could not be 
immediately dislodged. Meanwhile small risings in 
several other places in Ireland collapsed almost at 
once. Everywhere the mass of the people regarded 
the affair with indifference, or strongly condemned it 
as a mad and rash enterprise hopeless from the first, 



378 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

which could only bring disaster to Ireland. Evi- 
dently Germany could not give help, if she would, and 
it was afterwards believed that she had small inten- 
tion of trying to do it, and was merely using Ireland 
as a tool. German warships did dash out to bom- 
bard some of the English coast towns, but this brought 
no assistance to the Irish Republic. 

It is evident now that the insurrection could not 
succeed, but in the uncertainty and dangers of the 
moment anything seemed possible; and the British 
people, hitherto indifferent, were profoundly moved 
and alarmed. Stern measures were taken. April 27 
martial law was proclaimed all over Ireland, and an 
English commander was dispatched from London 
with powers superseding all others. The Irish lead- 
ers in the House of Commons were greatly dis- 
tressed. Mr. Redmond believed that the overwhelm- 
ing majority of the Irish people regarded the whole 
thing with detestation and horror, and expressed hope 
that the event would not be turned into a political 
weapon against any political party. He was right in 
seeing that the rebellion coming at such a time per- 
illed the arduous work of the Nationalists, and might 
set back Ireland's cause as the murders in Phoenix 
Park once had done. Sir Edward Carson said he 
would gladly join with the Nationalists to the fullest 
extent in suppressing the rebels. 

Meanwhile the fighting went on. The fortunes of 
the Republic steadily waned as the government, re- 
covering from the surprise of the moment, brought 



THE EASTER REBELLION 379 

all of its power into action. There was severe fight- 
ing in the streets, with much firing from the roofs of 
houses, the insurgents going from one house to an- 
other over the roofs, using this means of communica- 
tion with greatest effect. Gradually their outlying 
positions were carried, not without losses on both 
sides. The rebels bore themselves in right soldierly 
fashion, and fought and worked with good discipline 
and effect, making the best use of such slender re- 
sources as they had. There was considerable pillag- 
ing, but it was by the baser elements of the popula- 
tion, in no way connected with the uprising, but quick 
to seize their chance in the confusion of the moment. 

Friends of the insurgents estimate that by Tuesday 
the government was able to dispose of 20,000 troops, 
while the rebels had but 1,100 men in Dublin, where 
alone they were able to hold out for more than a mo- 
ment. During the first day, hidden in houses and 
strong points of vantage, they had kept the enemy at 
bay. But on Tuesday the authorities brought artil- 
lery into action, and at once the odds became hope- 
less. The military has been much blamed for the 
bombardment which they began. Had they waited 
a little while, the insurgents, surrounded as they were 
in their general headquarters at the Dublin Post Of- 
fice and some buildings nearby, might have been 
forced to surrender merely by cutting off the munici- 
pal water supply. It has been thought also that the 
clergy might have intervened and stayed the horrors 
that ensued. Certainly, as we see it now, it would 



380 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

have been well to wait and allow the rebellion to col- 
lapse in ridicule and contempt; but the general sit- 
uation being what it was at the time, it probably 
seemed to the British commander that any delay would 
be dangerous. A book which stanchly advocated the 
cause of the rebellion says: "The artillery wrought 
havoc upon havoc, but it is difficult to see how else 
the insurgents were to be suppressed." 7 

So began a systematic bombardment with military 
and naval guns of the quarter held by the rebels, in 
the course of which whole rows of houses were burned 
or levelled with the ground. That fine thoroughfare 
which visitors know as Sackville Street and which 
Nationalists have called after O'Connell, became a 
heap of ruins. Gradually the snipers were overcome, 
and the cordon of troops drawn ever tighter about the 
insurgents, until presently their principal refuge, the 
Post Office, came under fire of the artillery and was 
largely destroyed. In the last days of April the re- 
volt was broken. Many of the rebels surrendered, 
after holding out until ammunition was exhausted. 
There were terrible scenes in the center of the city; 
there was the roar of cannon, there was the rattle 
of machine-guns. Fire added its horror. The Ho- 
tel Metropole and many buildings down Abbey Street 
were burned. Twenty great business establishments 
and many smaller places took fire, and at last the 
Post Office. All the while from the windows and 
the roofs and from such barricades as remained the 

i The Irish Rebellion of 1916, pp. 102, 103. 



THE EASTER REBELLION 381 

rebels shot at their foes. On the afternoon of April 
29, with ammunition gone, with his followers sur- 
rounded and hopelessly outnumbered, Padraic Pearse 
surrendered unconditionally, and bade the Republi- 
can forces lay down their arms. The other leaders 
then yielded also, and by Saturday afternoon all was 
over, except that for a day or so longer an occasional 
sniper continued to fire from some position which he 
had taken. 

Terrible was the ruin and havoc. Sackville Street, 
the finest in the city, had been ruined. There had 
been many fires, and the damage was estimated at 
more than £2,000,000. Most of the ruin had fallen 
upon people in no wise connected with the uprising, 
and entirely innocent of the doings of Sinn Fein. "In 
places the city looked like Antwerp during the siege, 
or London upon the arrival of the Belgian refugees." 8 
"The finest part of our city," said one, "has been 
blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Sol- 
diers amongst us who have served abroad say that the 
ruin of this quarter is more complete than anything 
they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have 
seen anywhere in France or Flanders." 9 For a while 
the sentiment in Dublin and in Ireland was bitter 
against those whose rebellion had brought this about. 

A few days later Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for 
Ireland, made his statement in the House of Com- 

s Redmond-Howard, p. 123. 

9 James Stephens, The Insurrection in Dublin (New York, 1916), 
p. 96. 



382 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

mons. He confessed that he had falsely estimated 
the Sinn Fein movement in so far that he had not 
thought possible an uprising like that which had come. 
He said that his error, with all its great and terrible 
consequences, had not arisen from lack of anxiety and 
care. He had subordinated everything to keeping 
unbroken the front of Ireland in this war. He had 
failed, and he gave now his resignation, which, of 
course, was accepted. Mr. Redmond, who confessed 
that he also had not appreciated the dangers from 
Sinn Fein, declared that Mr. Birrell had conferred 
many benefits upon Ireland; and Sir Edward Carson 
asserted that the tragedy had arisen from the Secre- 
tary's great desire to preserve national unity. Such 
were the difficulties of Irish administration. The 
Chief Secretary, a humane and noble man, had meant 
well and done well, and yet failed completely, and it 
seemed now that his failure had come principally from 
leniency and weakness. 

The government, which may before have been idle 
and supine, now proceeded to severest measures, and 
a rigorous inquisition was begun for the apprehen- 
sion of all of the rebels. On May 3rd, three of the 
principal leaders and signatories of the proclamation 
of independence, Pearse, his old associate Mac- 
Donagh, and another, were shot after trial by court 
martial. Pearse, gentle and knightly during the 
struggle, met his end bravely. To his mother in the 
last hours of his life, he wrote a beautiful letter. 
"This is the death I should have asked for if God had 



THE EASTER REBELLION 383 

given me the choice of all deaths — to die a soldier's 
death for Ireland and for freedom. We have done 
right." 10 Then began what adherents of Sinn Fein 
have described as a reign of terror. "Ah," says the 
writer who boasted of the audacity of the Fianna boys 
and the daring exploits of Madame, "how the stories 
of Belgian atrocities . . . paled beside this one fort- 
night in Dublin! . . . Stories of atrocities poured into 
our ears when the Germans invaded Belgium. Now 
we had to hear them from our own people, and now 
we had to believe them. They were stories as cruel 
as any heard since the days of the Island Magee mas- 
sacre." 11 She tells little to support this assertion; 
and she might have pondered for a moment on what 
would probably have been done by the Germans to 
avenge such a rising, by reflecting upon the events of 
Dinant and Louvain. To many others the proceed- 
ings of the government have seemed merely stern and 
just retribution. For a while courts martial sat al- 
most every day. Thirteen of the leaders were shot, 
and some forty-five sentenced to prison. The Count- 
ess Markievicz was sentenced to death, but this was 
commuted to penal servitude for life. Of the police, 
the constabulary, and the soldiers employed in sup- 
pressing the rebellion 124 were killed, and the total 
casualties were more than 500. Early in May Mr. 
Dillon, the well-known Irish leader, declared that 
there were secret shootings and imprisonments in the 

io The Irish RebeUion»of 1916, pp. 279, 280. 
ii Skinnider, pp. 166, 167, 174, 175. 



384 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

barracks in Ireland, and that Dublin was maddened 
by the rumors. He said that these things were being 
concealed from Mr. Asquith, and that the soldiers of 
the British government were washing out in a sea of 
blood the life-work of the Nationalist leaders. Mr. 
Asquith replied that thirteen had been put to death, 
and that two were to follow; that was all. 

There was one incident which could certainly not 
be defended, and which, when it came to be widely 
known, created a very bad impression not only in 
Ireland, but in England, and the United States. 
April 26, Mr. Sheehy Skeffington, aiDublin journalist, 
had been shot, as it afterwards appeared, without the 
knowledge of any military tribunal. Skeffington 
was one of those strong but gentle idealists, of child- 
like simplicity and unfailing enthusiasm for all that 
he believed to be right, sometimes annoying, some- 
times very lovable, inspired with zeal to help the 
weak and oppressed, pacifist, advocate of women's 
rights, very radical, intensely Irish, an active and able 
man. When the war broke out he wrote against Irish- 
men helping England in her war, and asked what 
England's triumph could bring save the strengthen- 
ing of the power which exploited Ireland; and he was 
very active in speaking against recruiting. None the 
less he had nothing to do with the rebellion, for he 
abhorred all warfare; and it was known that he had 
taken some part in efforts to stop looting during the 
confusion of the struggle. Walking through the 
streets of the city unarmed, he was seized at the order 



THE EASTER REBELLION 385 

of a Captain Bowen-Colthurst and taken to the bar- 
racks. That night he was shot. Whether this was 
done to him as a hostage, and in reprisal for firing 
upon soldiers, or whether the captain was insane at 
the time, as the court martial which tried him decided, 
is not very clear. Unfortunately every country has 
some junkers, and it has been said that often England 
contrives to export them to Ireland — it may have been 
so in this case. At all events, the widow of the mur- 
dered man, coming to the United States at a critical 
time, and telling her pathetic story wherever she could, 
did not a little to embitter the minds of people against 
British conduct in Ireland. 

Actually not many of the leaders were punished 
severely, and practically none of their followers; for 
after detention and imprisonment, they were dis- 
charged, when an amnesty was proclaimed in the fol- 
lowing year. But now one of those things happened, 
which illustrates the complexities of Irish character 
and exhibits very well the difficulties which beset Irish 
administration as things are at present. Before the 
rebellion the government had been very lenient, far 
too lenient, perhaps. Under the direction of the Chief 
Secretary little notice had been taken of the activities 
of extremists, and Sinn Feiners had been allowed to 
go about openly uttering sedition and drilling armed 
bodies of men. It is true, this same thing had been 
permitted in Ulster, and Irishmen often declared that 
there was the beginning of the trouble; but many 
Englishmen saw some difference between two armed 



386 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

bodies, one of which prepared to resist separation 
from Great Britain, the other to make that separation 
complete. At all events, Sinn Fein had been allowed 
to go much its own way, the authorities, as they con- 
fessed, dreading lest coercion be the signal for serious 
trouble. In the terrible hour, when the Empire was 
engaged in a death grapple with its enemy, Sinn 
Feiners had set up a Republic and sought to sever 
the vital bonds of the Empire. They were quickly 
suppressed, it is true, but not before many soldiers 
and civilians had been wounded or killed, a great 
deal of property had been plundered by the rabble 
of the gutter, and the fairest part of the city entirely 
ruined. Now the danger was over, but it had seemed 
a horrible one, with awful possibilities stretching out 
from it. In the midst of normal conditions, and with 
no new oppression and tyranny to justify them, after 
some years of benefit and conciliation on the part of 
the authorities, and at a time when Home Rule seemed 
at last to have been gained, the Sinn Feiners struck, 
and the events of the week had left death and suffer- 
ing and desolation. Britain had trusted, and found 
herself deceived. In the uttermost crisis she was 
struck from behind. The waters around Ireland are 
of fundamental importance to her safety, and the 
enemy had been invited to enter them. What should 
she do ? These men had staked all and lost ; they had 
taken their chance; justly their lives were forfeit. 
Should the law be meted out to them? Or should 
England do what English-speaking peoples had done 



THE EASTER REBELLION 387 

not seldom before in the midst of perplexity and trou- 
ble, pardon those who had risen in rebellion? Should 
she be stern, and terrify the lawless, or win by for- 
bearance and mildness? Well might her leaders 
think after Easter Week that forbearance was vain. 
So, Britain was stern at first, and some Irishmen 
were put to death. In this she did no wrong; but it 
may be that she was not wise. I am not certain, and 
I see not how others can be, that if Britain had freely 
pardoned Pearse and all his fellows, they would have 
shown any gratitude, or that she would have gained 
aught thereby. But this much is certain, that the 
greatest success of Sinn Fein came from the death of 
its leaders. Their cause had failed in such manner 
that it was bound to be discredited for a while. It 
is even possible that it might have died out in con- 
tempt, though it is doubtful whether that would have 
happened. But now they who had been violent ex- 
tremists with a small following became martyrs, as it 
seemed, for the Irish people; Ireland gave her heart 
to them and their cause; and it was not very long 
before Sinn Fein was the dominant force in the poli- 
tics of the island. 

As the warm and passionate heart of the Irish 
turned in wonder and love to the men who died for the 
Easter insurrection, several things became clear. 
They might have been foolish and mistaken, they were 
often violent and extreme, their policy might be nar- 
row and their ends harmful, but there was nothing 
mean nor selfish about some of these men. Their 



388 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ideals had been high and pure; they were altogether 
above considerations of their own welfare; perhaps 
they saw that the enterprise was hopeless, and gave 
themselves in sacrifice for Ireland. None of the 
rebels had plundered or stolen, none of them had 
sought any personal profit. Like the best of the suf- 
fragettes, they had simply a great cause at heart. 
They loved Ireland, and devoted themselves gladly. 
Martyrs, then, and heroes they became. To many 
Irish men and women they were the latest successors 
of O'Neill, Wolf Tone, Emmet, Mitchel, and a long 
line of sufferers for Ireland's sake. 

And what was the cause for which they had so 
highly dared all? The revival of the fine, strong, 
beautiful, and noble Ireland which they saw in their 
visions, and had striven so hard to reconstruct in their 
lives; with no accepting of gifts at the hand of the 
British government, and no taking of any half -meas- 
ure of Irish nationality. In the name of God and 
the dead generations of old they had called the chil- 
dren of Ireland to arise. "We declare the right of 
the people of Ireland ... to the unfettered control 
of Irish destinies." An Irish nation, an Ireland all 
for the Irish people, a new Ireland in which the Irish 
might be all themselves, strong, glorious, fine, and 
free, like the bright chieftains of ancient songs, that 
was the dream of the noblest of the Sinn Fein leaders. 
English domination made that impossible, and they 
had tried to strike off English control when they 
could. Home Rule, they thought, would have been 



THE EASTER REBELLION 389 

a weak compromise, leaving the best of their scheme 
unaccomplished; so they would have none of it, and 
had opposed it with words that seemed violent and 
brutal. Narrow they were, they could not see the 
other and greater things of this world; and foolish 
most people outside of Ireland will think them. But 
in some sense they had given their lives for a people 
quick to pity, and warm to worship those who have 
suffered for them. And so Sinn Fein in the death of 
its leaders accomplished that which it might never have 
done if the leaders had continued to live. "People will 
say hard things of us now," wrote Pearse, "but later 
on they will praise us." 12 And that was very true. 

Your dream had left me numb and cold 

But yet my spirit rose in pride, 
Refashioning in burnished gold 

The images of those who died, 
Or were shut in the penal cell — 

Here 's to you Pearse, your dream, not mine, 
But yet the thought — for this you fell — 

Turns all life's water into wine. 

I listened to much talk from you, \ 

Thomas MacDonagh, and it seemed 
The words were idle, but they grew 

To nobleness, by death redeemed. 
Life cannot utter things more great 

Than life can meet with sacrifice, 
High words were equalled by just fate, 

You paid the price, you paid the price. 13 

12 The Irish Rebellion of 1916, p. 280. 

1 3 George Russell, "Salutation": ibid., p. 3. 



390 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

The causes of this rebellion have been right wisely 
summed up by those who have studied the thing. The 
Royal Commission appointed to inquire reported that 
the main cause was the lawlessness which had been al- 
lowed to grow up unchecked, and the weakness of the 
government in desiring at all costs to avoid any trou- 
ble. Sheehy Skeffington, in a letter written just be- 
fore the catastrophe, declared that the Irish Volun- 
teers, and the armed workingmen in the Irish Citizen 
Army were well organized and conscious of their 
strength, and determined not to allow their arms to 
be taken away from them or brook any interference 
with their organizations. He said also, what others 
have said, that there was going on in the government 
circles of Ireland a bitter struggle between those forces 
led by Mr. Birrell, who wanted peace, and the mili- 
tarists, who were determined to suppress the armed 
bodies and seize their leaders. A few days before the 
revolt a Sinn Feiner said: "There is a most tre- 
mendous battle going on at the present moment at the 
Castle, we understand, between General Friend and 
Augustine Birrell — in other words, between the mili- 
tary and the civil authorities — and everything depends 
upon that issue." 14 As conditions were in Ireland 
attempted coercion could easily lead to an outburst. 
Now on April 19 the extremists got knowledge of a 
document, which the government afterwards declared 
to be a forgery, purporting to direct the arrest of the 
leaders of the Irish Volunteers and the Sinn Fein 

14 Redmond-Howard, p. 99. 



THE EASTER REBELLION 391 

Council and other bodies, so the leaders felt that all of 
their plans were about to be ruined. Accordingly, 
they finished their preparations, and the rebellion be- 
gan. In the minds of many this was the most 
immediate cause: the probable intention of the au- 
thorities to disarm Sinn Fein and the affiliated organ- 
izations, something which they could not endure when 
they thought of the government's indulgence with re- 
spect to the followers of John Redmond and of Sir 
Edward Carson. 

A greater but more remote cause was the growth of 
a new spirit in Ireland. Politicians and people still 
looked at the old order without realizing that a new 
one was silently displacing it. Ireland seemed di- 
vided between the Nationalists and the Unionists, and 
strong forces they were; but something else was tak- 
ing possession of Irish hearts. Redmond and his as- 
sociates had long led the most prominent party, and 
had perfected their organization so that it ran very 
smoothly. Jobs were got and positions secured 
through the influence of those who controlled the An- 
cient Order of Hibernians and the working of the Na- 
tionalist Party. In the conduct of this organization 
there was doubtless much that seemed objectionable: 
much that is inevitable and even seems necessary in 
political management, except where there is a very 
high level of interest and intelligence among the mem- 
bers of the electorate, but which the purer and more 
ardent as well as the extremer and more violent will 
regard with impatience. With all this Sinn Fein 



392 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

would have and was allowed to have little to do. 
Moreover, it breathed deeply in a fresh and new po- 
litical atmosphere. It regarded the Nationalist pol- 
icy as weak and as a foolish compromise : how with Mr. 
Redmond's Home Rule was there to be an Ireland 
free as they dreamed about and altogether for the 
Irish people? And just in proportion as their teach- 
ings prevailed, so was the Nationalist influence being 
undermined. Unseen some of its foundations were 
crumbling away. How far this had gone was not yet 
known, and the British government relied thoroughly 
upon the prospect of Home Rule and the power of 
the Nationalist Party to control the Irish situation. 
Both Britain and the Nationalists were surprised and 
mistaken. 

Another cause of the outbreak was the develop- 
ment in Dublin of a radical labor movement, which 
had grown largely because of the terrible condition in 
which the poorer workingmen lived, crowded, a great 
many of them, in single rooms in wretched and filthy 
tenements, working for starvation wages, with hope- 
less outlook, and, unlike the rural laborers in the con- 
gested districts, not helped by the government and 
their cause not espoused by any of the great political 
parties. They had therefore developed a party of 
their own, led by Jim Larkin, and, after the disastrous 
strike in Dublin in 1913, a syndicalist Labor move- 
ment, with the object of obtaining the common own- 
ership of Ireland by all the Irish. While the spirit 
of Sinn Fein was stirring up the minds of men to 



THE EASTER REBELLION 393 

seek drastic changes, the Irish syndicalists, burning 
with a sense of their wrongs and filled with the most 
radical ideas as to how betterment must be obtained, 
formed the Irish Citizen Army, one of those organiza- 
tions whose arming and drilling had been an omen of 
the trouble to come. During the Easter Rebellion 
they were commanded by James Connolly, who also 
acted as commander-in-chief of the forces of the ill- 
fated Republic. As Sinn Fein had drawn away from 
the Nationalist Party because it was believed that the 
Nationalists had compromised with England and were 
about to accept a half measure, so the Irish labor or- 
ganization despised John Redmond and his associates 
as men who were allied with the capitalist classes ex- 
ploiting them. Thus the Irish rebellion rested pri- 
marily upon the support of political and economic ex- 
tremists. 

There were yet other causes. Undoubtedly there 
was fierce opposition to enlisting in the British army, 
and it began to seem that Irishmen might be com- 
pelled to serve through conscription. This opposition 
was based not merely on dislike of Britain and aver- 
sion from doing anything to assist her, and on the be- 
lief that Irishmen should spend their lives only for 
Ireland, but also to some extent upon a hatred of 
militarism, since some of these men, while brave and 
willing to fight if they must, had none the less strong 
pacifist leanings. Furthermore the rebellion was a 
protest against the system of government from the 
Castle, so long endured and so greatly despised. Sinn 



394 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Fein believed that now the more malign influences in 
the Castle were getting an ascendancy about to be 
used for the further crushing of Irish liberties under 
plea of the necessities of the situation. German gold 
had something to do with the rising, but not much, it 
is generally believed. Sinn Fein was above accept- 
ing bribes, and such payments as were made seem to 
have been made to encourage the discontented to do 
what they longed to do when they could. German 
persuasion and propaganda doubtless had some part, 
particularly among the Irish in America, who in turn 
influenced their brethren in Ireland; but however 
vicious the utterances of some Irish-American writers, 
and however active the Clan-na-Gael seemed to be, 
German influence cannot be taken as one of the major 
causes of the rebellion : the purposes of Sinn Fein were 
in no wise connected with Germany, except in so far 
as some German help might be got to achieve them; 
and they would have used any power for that purpose. 
As for Germany, it need not be said that she had no 
real sympathy with the aspirations of Ireland or Sinn 
Fein, for such aspirations she had always ruthlessly 
crushed. But Irish independence leaning upon Ger- 
many would effectually make England subservient to 
greater Germany, and so she used these Irishmen for 
the purpose of embarrassing England. Actually Sir 
Roger Casement, who after his capture was hanged 
as a traitor in England, was sent to certain destruction 
by the Germans with whom he intrigued. 

Last of all, one of the causes of the revolt was the 



THE EASTER REBELLION 395 

desire of Sinn Fein to bring the subject of Irish inde- 
pendence to the attention of the world. They had in 
mind, perhaps, something like what inspired Cavour 
long before to send Italian soldiers with England and 
France to the Crimea, in order that these powers 
might later help him to get the claims of Italy before 
a European Congress. The whole world was in the 
throes of great changes soon to be wrought. Na- 
tionalities were to be recognized, the rights of small 
nations upheld. Pearse and MacDonagh believed 
that Ireland was gravely wronged in not having com- 
plete independence. "Their sense of thwarted na- 
tionality was so intense that they could not see Europe. 
And Europe, it seemed, had forgotten that Ireland 
was a nation." 15 They were high idealists, and from 
their point of view it was vitally important that Irish- 
men should not seem content and accept Home Rule, 
but express their displeasure so that it could not be 
ignored, and then get their case before some great 
tribunal to be settled. The mighty issues, the awful 
moment, the uncertain future, might make men forget, 
even in Ireland, the Irish question that was so dear to 
Sinn Fein. "It seemed that the mighty wings of 
the empire rushing to war were extinguishing the 
Irish lamp." 10 So they rose in rebellion to hold up 
before men the ideals of Gaelic Ireland, no matter 
what perished in the meantime. 

is Leslie, The Irish Issue, pp. 89, 90. 
wlbid., p. 90. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE HOME RULE QUESTION DURING THE WAR 

We stand at the door of the Empire and we ask admission ; 
we pledge you our fealty as a nation, and our loyalty as men. 
We seek to blot out even the memory of ancient wrongs and 
ancient miseries, and ancient causes of heart-burning and 
discontent. We ask to-day to be allowed to cross the 
threshold into an Empire — our, remember, by right of 
service, as much as yours — where the genius of our people, 
the valour of our soldiers, and the fidelity of our race might, 
possibly, prove to be one of your greatest assets in the 
vicissitudes and the dangers of an unknown future. 

Speech of John Redmond, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

November 14, 1913. 

WHEN the war broke out the Home Rule con- 
troversy had reached its most critical stage. 
In accordance with the Parliament Act of 1911, the 
Home Rule Bill would automatically become law at 
the end of the session, but while most of Gaelic Ireland 
was looking forward to the operation of the new 
statute with eager anticipation, many of the men of 
Ulster were armed to resist it, and threatened to op- 
pose it with force. The Liberals had introduced an 
Amending Bill which provided for the temporary ex- 
clusion of the Ulster counties desiring it ; but what the 
Ulster Volunteers wanted was permanent exclusion, 

396 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 397 

and the Amending Bill was transformed by the House 
of Lords so as to provide for the permanent exclusion 
of all Ulster. The Commons would certainly have 
rejected this, since the Nationalists would have naught 
to do with it. The king had called a conference at 
Buckingham Palace, but the representatives had de- 
parted with nothing accomplished. Well might Ger- 
many believe that Britain, if she desired to enter the 
war, would be paralyzed by civil commotion in Ire- 
land. Sir Horace Plunkett, in politics a moderate 
Unionist, but above all things a thoughtful Irish 
patriot, at this moment published a memorial, The 
Better Way: An Appeal to Ulster not to Desert Ire- 
land, in which he implored Unionists to give Home 
Rule a chance. Let them withdraw afterwards if 
they would, but enter the new system now. Then 
came the crash of the war. 

At once the political parties declared a truce. 
Further considering of Irish legislation was postponed 
to such time as the government and the leaders of the 
Opposition might determine. But by September Mr. 
Asquith was resolved to take up Irish matters again. 
He announced that at the end of the session the Home 
Rule Bill would be law, and that in the session fol- 
lowing an Amending Bill would be passed before 
Home Rule went into effect. The Opposition de- 
clared this a breach of faith, and said that Ulster was 
being betrayed. Liberals and Nationalists insisting 
that Ulster was not to be coerced, asserted that Home 
Rule was necessary if the ardor of Irishmen for the 



398 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

war was not to be dampened, and an unfavorable im- 
pression created abroad. Irishmen, they said, would 
enlist for service if Home Rule were given. Union- 
ists were firm in maintaining that Home Rule and the 
Amending Bill should come in together. September 
19, the Government of Ireland Bill received the as- 
sent of the king. It was not to go into effect so long 
as the war continued. A week later Mr. Asquith ad- 
dressed a great meeting in Dublin. He spoke of what 
was imperilled by the war, and asked that Irishmen 
take the part which they should. Mr. Redmond, who 
had already spoken so gallantly in London, said: 
"You have kept faith with Ireland; Ireland will keep 
faith with you." 1 

Redmond had already issued a manifesto calling 
upon the people to form an Irish Brigade for service 
at the front. But difficulties began now. The 
strength of Sinn Fein was not known yet, but Sinn 
Feiners redoubled the efforts they had been making 
to prevent recruiting, and enlistments were far short 
of what was expected. In May, 1915, the course of 
the war made the formation of a coalition cabinet ad- 
visable, and a new cabinet consisting of twenty-two 
members was formed, the largest in modern times. 
Liberals and Unionists were brought together in it, 
as well as others, and a place was offered to Mr. Red- 
mond ; but he declined, thinking it inadvisable to enter. 
Notwithstanding that the government would have 
been glad to have him, and that he remained outside 

i Annual Register, 1914, P- 216. 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 399 

through his own decision, Nationalists saw with ap- 
prehension that while he was not a minister, the leader 
of their bitterest enemies, Sir Edward Carson, came 
into the cabinet as attorney-general. Afterwards this 
created a very unfavorable impression. During the 
year Irish affairs attracted little attention in parlia- 
ment or in England, since men were absorbed in the 
mightier events of the war; and there was a disposi- 
tion on the part of the government to let Irish affairs 
take their own course, with a view to avoiding trouble 
in this most troublesome time. In November, Mr. 
Redmond in the Commons declared that the Irish race 
throughout the world was with the Allies in the war, 
and wanted no premature peace, but he complained 
that the military authorities did not properly recog- 
nize the achievements of the Irish troops. 

After the Irish rebellion there was great and just 
indignation in England, and little sympathy with 
such Sinn Fein doctrines as were understood. 
Unionists particularly cried out for stern measures 
and strong rule, and many were disposed to agree with 
them. May 11, however, Mr. Asquith announced 
that he was going to Ireland to consult with the mili- 
tary and civil authorities there, so that some arrange- 
ment might be made for governing Ireland which 
would commend itself to all Irishmen and to the 
British people as well. A fortnight later he declared 
in the Commons that he had returned with two domi- 
nant impressions : that the existing machinery of gov- 
ernment there had broken down, and that in Ireland 



400 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

there was a universal feeling that here was a new 
opportunity for settlement and agreement. The 
Home Rule Act was on the statute books, but nobody 
wished to see one group of Irishmen coerced by an- 
other. Why could there not be agreement among the 
various parties in the island? The British govern- 
ment was very anxious to secure such result. Mr. 
Lloyd George had just undertaken to devote himself 
to a settlement of the Irish question, and was now in 
communication with the various Irish interests. In 
the general satisfaction with which this announce- 
ment was received both Redmond and Carson ex- 
pressed their approval. 

Meanwhile the Royal Commission made its scath- 
ing report upon the weakness of administration in 
Ireland, and Sir Roger Casement was hanged in Pen- 
tonville Jail; but while the Irish tragedy was coming 
to its conclusion, Mr. Lloyd George's efforts began to 
produce their effect. At a meeting of the Nationalist 
Party in Dublin, June 10, it was stated that he pro- 
posed to bring Home Rule into immediate operation, 
and to introduce an amending bill for the period of 
the war and a short while beyond, that during this 
time the Irish members were to remain at Westminster 
in their present number, and six Ulster counties were 
to be left under the Imperial government as at pres- 
ent. The Ulster Unionist Council at once declared 
that it abhorred, as ever, the policy of Home Rule, but 
in this urgency would defer to Imperial necessity ; and 
Sir Edward Carson was given authority to assist the 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 401 

negotiations under Mr. Lloyd George on the basis of 
an exclusion of the six counties, Antrim, Armagh, 
Deny, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone, and of the 
cities of Newry, Londonderry, and Belfast. In Bel- 
fast the Nationalists agreed to the proposals, and it 
almost seemed that the insoluble Irish problem was 
about to be settled for the time. Difficulties arose at 
once, however. Many people in Great Britain be- 
lieved that Ireland should be dealt with very vigor- 
ously. Some of the Irish Unionists protested that 
such giving of Home Rule was really rewarding Ire- 
land for a rebellion which had only just been sup- 
pressed. Unionists in England criticised the pro- 
posals of Mr. Lloyd George: they had supposed 
Home Rule would be given after the war, but he 
seemed ready to establish it at once. It would be 
perilous to undertake this at such a time with Ireland 
so disturbed. The Ulster Unionists were as deter- 
mined as ever not to give up their connection with 
Britain. 

After further consultation, July 10, Mr. Asquith 
announced the proposals: to bring Home Rule into 
operation with the exclusion of the counties and the 
cities already named; he then told Sir Edward Car- 
son that these districts were definitely struck out of the 
Act, and would not be included without a new bill; 
the Irish House of Commons during the continuance 
of the act to be made would consist of the members 
who served in the Imperial parliament, and the execu- 
tive was not to interfere in any way with the prosecu- 



402 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

tion of the war by the British government. These 
proposals differed from those which had first come 
from Mr. Lloyd George, and, of course, from the 
Home Rule Act passed but in abeyance, and Red- 
mond declared that they brought the negotiations to 
an end so far as the Nationalists were concerned. He 
and his followers were angered, moreover, at the de- 
termination expressed by some of the English leaders 
to deal firmly with Ireland ; while Unionists welcomed 
what they said was the intention of the government to 
repress all treason and sedition. Shortly after Mr. 
Asquith told Mr. Redmond that Britain would not 
consent to allow Irish members in the parliament in 
their present numbers after the next election. The 
Irish leader declared that the course of the govern- 
ment was such as to make the Irish people suspect its 
good faith, and that it would inflame resentment in 
Ireland. Next Mr. Dillon asserted that military rule 
now prevailing in Ireland was doing more to spread 
disaffection than all the efforts of Sinn Fein. Mr. 
Redmond appealed to Englishmen not to let their in- 
dignation at the outbreak of 2,000 men in Dublin lead 
to the injustice of forgetting the part of the 150,000 
Irishmen fighting in the service of the Empire. By 
this time the negotiations had failed. Essentially, as 
before, the failure was due to the difficulty of recon- 
ciling the wishes of Ulster with those of the rest of 
Ireland. 

Meanwhile graver trouble had come with respect to 
conscription, which was continually being discussed 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 403 

as the need for men became greater. Conditions got 
worse rather than better. In February, 1917, a num- 
ber of Irishmen were arrested and deported under 
the Defence of the Realm Act, which caused protest 
in the House of Commons. March 7, Mr. T. P. 
O'Connor moved a resolution that Ireland receive the 
free institutions promised for such a long time: there 
were as before the alternatives of settlement or coer- 
cion. It was also said that the Australian Senate had 
just voted by large majority a resolution favoring 
Irish Home Rule. Major Redmond, brother of the 
Nationalist leader, appealed to the House of Com- 
mons to forget the past and start afresh. He be- 
sought Sir Edward Carson to meet the Nationalists, 
who would go any length to get the confidence of 
Ulster. But a statement was then made for the 
Unionists of the north that they would not go under 
a Home Rule parliament. 

In the latter part of 1916 there had been a change 
in the government of the United Kingdom. The de- 
struction of Rumania and increasing danger had 
brought the fall of Mr. Asquith's coalition cabinet, 
and the government was now being carried on pri- 
marily by a war cabinet of five, with Mr. Lloyd 
George at the head. In the debate of March 7 he 
stated that centuries of British rule had caused Irish- 
men to hate Britain, but that a portion of the popula- 
tion of Ireland was just as hostile to Irish rule. 
These were the fundamental facts of the situation. 
The people of Britain were ready to confer self -gov- 



404 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

ernment upon the Irish, but were not prepared to 
force the population of Ulster to submit to it against 
their will. Both he and Mr. Asquith would welcome 
any solution which did not involve coercion of part 
of the Irish people. Apparently John Redmond had 
now come to the end of his patience. He had wished 
to be loyal to the best interests of the Empire, he had 
tried to assist the government in the war, and he 
had been patient. For more than two years he had 
waited: Ireland did not yet have Home Rule. Now, 
therefore, saying that the government was playing 
into the hands of the Irish revolutionary party, and 
that he would not enter into more negotiations, he 
declared that further debate would be useless, and 
rising called upon his associates to withdraw from the 
chamber of the Commons. He left the House fol- 
lowed by sixty of the Irish members. Next day they 
held a meeting at which they asserted that Mr. Lloyd 
George had changed his attitude with respect to 
Ulster, that his new principle would forever den}' self- 
government to Ireland, making it thus contingent 
upon the consent of a hostile minority, and called upon 
Irishmen all over the world to bring pressure to bear 
upon Britain that Ireland might receive those right 
things for which the war was being carried on in 
Europe. 

All the best Englishmen sincerely regretted the 
condition in which things now were; but as Mr. Bonar 
Law said, the principal difficulty in the way of Home 
Rule was not convincing the people of Great Britain 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 405 

but some of the people of Ireland. It was certain 
that a change of government was needed there, and 
Britain was willing to give self-government at once; 
but a settlement was needed in Ireland, and both par- 
ties there would have to make sacrifices to attain it. 

In May the prime minister proposed to Mr. Red- 
mond and Sir Edward Carson that a bill should be 
introduced for the immediate application of Home 
Rule to Ireland, excluding for five years the counties 
of northeastern Ulster. He suggested also the 
formation of a Council of Ireland, so that unity of 
Irish legislation might be attained, this council to be 
composed of representatives from the excluded area 
as well as the rest of Ireland. The future inclusion 
of the area left out was to be subject to the consent of 
a majority of its voters. At the end of the letter in 
which these suggestions were made he proposed that 
if such arrangement was not acceptable, a convention 
of Irishmen of all parties should be assembled, so 
that they might try to arrange for themselves a scheme 
of self-government of their own. The Nationalist 
leader decided promptly that the first proposal would 
find no approval in most of Ireland, but that the Na- 
tionalists could agree to a convention. In parliament 
now Mr. Lloyd George said that the time had come 
for the Irish people to try their own hands. If a con- 
vention could only agree, the British government 
would put their arrangement into effect. The con- 
vention must represent all parties in the island. This 
speech was well received by the political leaders ; and 



106 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

shortly after it was known that the Unionists and the 
Nationalists would both support such an effort. The 
government hoped that Sinn Fein would likewise take 
part. 

June 11, Mr. Lloyd George announced the plan 
of the Convention. There were to be 101 members, 
representing the counties and the county boroughs, the 
different religious organizations, commerce and labor, 
and including five members for the Nationalists, the 
Ulster Unionists, and the southern Unionists, five for 
the Sinn Fein, if they would come, and two for the 
O'Brienites and for the Irish peers, and including 
finally fifteen leading Irishmen from all sections, to 
be nominated by the government itself. 

Irish opinion was not enthusiastic about the Con- 
vention. Failure was expected, and not much atten- 
tion really given. At first, however, things went bet- 
ter than many had anticipated. The government 
made some excellent appointments among the fifteen 
members which it chose, Sir Horace Plunkett, Mr. 
George Russell, Mr. Mahaffy, and others. Sir 
Horace Plunkett was at once elected chairman, and 
no better choice could have been made. But already 
there had been discouraging events. The British gov- 
ernment had released all the Sinn Fein prisoners con- 
fined for the Easter Rebellion, desiring that the Con- 
vention might begin its work in the midst of good 
feeling. Now the Irish people, who were giving scant 
heed to the plan of the Convention, welcomed the 
Sinn Fein leaders with frantic delight. They re- 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 407 

turned nothing mollified at the action of the authori- 
ties, but rather with the feeling that the justice of 
the cause for which they had suffered was established: 
the government was doing them no act of grace in giv- 
ing them freedom. As for Ireland, they would ac- 
cept nothing less than the complete independence 
which they had striven to procure ; so they would have 
nothing to do with the Convention. Their return was 
marked at once by violence and riots. It was evident 
that for the moment they had captured the sentiments 
of many of the Irish people, for when their leader, 
Prof, de Valera, stood as candidate for East Clare, he 
was returned by an enormous majority. 

During the summer of 1917 the Convention held 
secret sessions. Apparently some progress was made ; 
but far more emotion was aroused when a Sinn Feiner, 
who had been released at the time of the general am- 
nesty, and then re-arrested for attempting to incite 
disaffection, starved himself to death in prison, be- 
cause he was not accorded the treatment of a political 
prisoner. At his funeral in Dublin there was an im- 
mense and impressive demonstration; and it was an 
ominous sign that in the mighty procession which went 
to his grave, there were more than a hundred priests. 

In October, Mr. Redmond deplored the conduct of 
the authorities in Ireland at the very time when the 
Convention was striving to accomplish something; 
but the reply was that the young men of Ireland, un- 
conscripted for service in the great war, were being 
enrolled apparently for another rebellion. The prime 






408 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

minister said that there had been attempts to land 
arms in Ireland; now disloyal organizations were be- 
ing suppressed. He added that if the Convention 
could reach a substantial agreement, the government 
would put their plan into operation without any 
delay. 

The wisest and most moderate Irishmen had during 
this time tried to arouse interest and support for the 
Convention's work. Never did Mr. Russell write 
more finely. A Protestant and an Ulsterman, but 
above all a great-hearted Irishman, he addressed him- 
self to the best people in the United Kingdom, in a 
pamphlet which revived the finest traditions of the 
eighteenth century, when the masters of political argu- 
ment used the pamphlet as an instrument in political 
debate. "There are moments," he said, "in history 
when by the urgency of circumstances every one in a 
country is drawn from normal pursuits to consider the 
affairs of the nation." 2 He was addressing himself 
to Unionists, Sinn Feiners, Nationalists, and the 
electorate of Britain. Well would it be if they could 
understand each other, and meet in a spirit of compro- 
mise and moderation, for Ireland's sake. Solemn 
was the warning addressed to England. At no time 
in Irish history was the spirit of nationality more in- 
tense than now. It would be well to grant Irishmen 
the freedom and wholeness in political life which they 

2 Thoughts for a Convention. Published originally in The Irish Times, 

then reprinted as a pamphlet, it has been published in this country 

along with some other pieces in The Irish Homo-Rule Convention (New 
York, 1917). 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 400 

so much desired. "If their claim is not met they will 
brood and scheme and wait to strike a blow; though the 
dream may be handed on from them to their children 
and their children's children, yet they will hope, some- 
time, to give the last vengeful thrust of enmity at the 
stricken heart of the empire." Ireland, he said, if 
her representation was to be diminished in the Im- 
perial parliament, wanted control of trade policy and 
taxation, since these things dominated the life of a 
people, and she desired to build up her own civilization 
with an economic policy in keeping. Therefore, the 
Home Rule Act should be radically changed so as to 
give Ireland unfettered control over taxation, cus- 
toms, excise, and trade; there should be the status and 
powers of economic control possessed by the self-gov- 
erning dominions. He called on Nationalists to be 
very liberal, and give every safeguard to Ulster which 
the men of the north might require. Let religion be 
left to the churches and altogether dissevered from 
politics. He bade Unionists recognize with sympathy 
the fine Irish culture, and wish to see it developed 
along with their own in Ireland. To the extremists 
he declared that their demand for complete independ- 
ence would make it impossible that Ulster should ever 
throw in her lot with a self-governing Ireland; if 
they desired to have her, they must be content with an 
Ireland possessing complete control over internal af- 
fairs, but remaining within the commonwealth of do- 
minions of the Empire. The men of South Africa 
had wisely done this. "Is the same magnanimity not 



410 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

possible in Ireland?" To procure the well-being of 
Ireland the extreme parties must abate their demands. 
Some of these ideas have a greater importance than 
appears at first glance. It is evident that any writ- 
ing intended to bring about moderateness and procure 
conciliation and agreement in such circumstances must 
advise the Covenanters to abandon their unyielding 
exclusiveness and Sinn Fein to give up its impractical 
demand for complete separation; but the pamphlet 
embodies an idea which at this very time was being 
more and more taken up by the Nationalists, the 
great moderate party, hitherto predominant in IrislT^ 
politics, an idea which constitutes a distinct step in 
the history of Home Rule. Up to this time Home 
Rule had generally been understood to mean Irish 
autonomy within the United Kingdom, since control 
of customs was to be not in Ireland but in the parlia- 
ment at London. In this form it had been accepted 
by Parnell and repeatedly accepted and approved by 
John Redmond. Now George Russell put forward 
what others were thinking of and what was presently 
insisted on by the predominant interests in the Con- 
vention, a demand for control of the customs, thus 
giving Ireland essentially the status of one of the self- 
governing colonies or dominions. This would bring 
about what might be designated properly as "colonial" 
Home Rule. That is to say, while advocates of Home 
Rule were far less radical than Sinn Fein, they were 
going farther and asking for greater powers than 
before. 






THE HOME RULE QUESTION 411 

At length, in April, 1918, the Irish Convention, 
after fifty sessions, held its last meeting in Trinity 
College, Dublin. The report presented by its chair- 
man was adopted, and the Convention finally ad- 
journed. The conduct of the members had been 
amiable and conciliatory. The report, which had been 
agreed to only with the utmost difficulty and after a 
great deal of discussion, had indeed been adopted, but 
it had not been accepted by a decisive majority. It 
is true, there had not apparenly been more insuperable 
obstacles to overcome than had been met by those who 
once drafted a constitution and got it adopted by the 
American states. Just as then there had been the 
fundamental differences between the south and the 
north, between state sovereignty and a sovereignty 
above the states, between the large states and the 
small ones, so in the Convention there had been the 
opposition between Nationalists and Unionists, while 
outside there was the difference between them who 
would have local autonomy or colonial status and them 
who wanted nothing less than complete independence. 
In the end Ulster Unionists remained irreconcilable, 
just as the men of Rhode Island once had been, and 
the men of New York had threatened to be; but the 
report was accepted by the majority of the National- 
ists, all of the southern Unionists, and most of the 
Labor representatives. So, again the principal dif- 
ference remained what it had been before, between 
Ulster and the rest of Ireland. Yet Sir Horace 
Plunkett thought that the report laid a foundation of 



412 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Irish agreement unprecedented in history, and it did 
seem that greater adjustments had been made in the 
Convention and a larger spirit of concession shown 
than ever before. The wise and moderate men of 
Ireland might well remember that even after the 
American constitution was drawn up, insurmountable 
difficulties had seemed to remain; that only some of 
the less important states adopted it willingly and at 
once ; that in Pennsylvania it was carried by chicanery 
and strong methods, followed by riots and the appear- 
ance of state militia and cannon ; that it was taken up 
by Virginia only after long and bitter opposition ; with 
much difficulty in Massachusetts; and that in New 
York the prospect seemed hopeless, with a strong 
majority against it, until after riots and bitterest con- 
test it was secured by Alexander Hamilton's magnifi- 
cent reasoning and persistence. When it was remem- 
bered that the constitution could scarcely have suc- 
ceeded, had not the great states, so doubtful or so op- 
posed to it, acceded, that for many a year afterward 
some of them were cold or disobedient, but that in the 
end, nevertheless, they all worked loyally to make it 
a splendid success, Mr. Russell and Sir Horace 
Plunkett might properly feel that their task was not 
greater or more hopeless. 

The scheme proposed by the Convention was that 
Ireland should be a self-governing member of the 
Empire. The supreme authority of the Imperial par- 
liament was to remain undiminished, the Irish parlia- 
ment to be erected not being allowed to legislate on 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 413 

peace, war, the army, navy, treaties, foreign relations, 
and some other things. The executive power in Ire- 
land was to be nominally, as before, in the king, which 
meant, of course, the ministry of the Empire, to be 
exercised through a lord lieutenant on the advice of an 
Irish executive committee, this latter provision giving 
Irishmen actually, through their representatives, con- 
trol of their government, just as the people of Eng- 
land had control through their House of Commons 
and cabinet. In the parliament at Westminster Ire- 
land was to have forty-two representatives, who 
should have the right to deliberate and vote on all 
matters. The new Irish parliament was to consist of 
a Senate, made up of archbishops, representative 
peers, and other important personages, and a House 
of Commons, containing 160 representative members 
and 40 additional ones, 20 of the extra members to 
be chosen by Ulster constituencies and 20 appointed 
by the lord lieutenant to represent the southern Union- 
ists, this for the additional safeguarding of the rights 
of Unionists in Ireland: forty per cent of the total 
membership of the House was to be guaranteed them. 
This concession was made by Nationalists something 
in the way that long before two senators were allowed 
to little Rhode Island at the same time that Virginia 
and Massachusetts each were given two in spite of 
their far greater numbers and wealth. One important 
matter, that of customs and excise, the Convention 
had not been able to agree about, and determination 
was to be left untiFafter the end of the war; though a 



4>U IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

supplementary statement by some of the members in- 
sisted that Ireland should be given control of them. 
Substantially, the Convention proposed Home Rule 
for Ireland in all Irish matters, with Ireland continu- 
ing to be a member of the British Empire, and with 
adequate and generous provisions for the protection 
of the Unionist minority. There had been much com- 
promise, and it seemed that something had been ac- 
complished. For a moment the opinion abroad was 
very favorable, and there was hope among the widely 
scattered friends of Ireland that the Irish question was 
about to be fairly settled. Apparently the British 
government welcomed the solution no less ; and a com- 
mittee of the cabinet council was at once appointed to 
draft a bill for Irish self-government. 

It soon developed, however, that little had really 
been determined. Not only was the opposition of 
Ulster still so strong that the old difficulty remained 
in the government's way, but all of the Convention's 
good work was soon obscured by the storm which con- 
scription now raised. In April, after strong opposi- 
tion and passionate resistance, the British government 
announced that compulsory service would be extended 
to Ireland. The work of the Convention was forgot- 
ten there almost at once, and all classes united with 
that passionate feeling often characteristic of Irish 
movements to fight against military service imposed 
by the United Kingdom. The Irish question had be- 
come very intricate. All over the island resistance 
to conscription was prepared; all parties were united 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 415 

in opposition, Nationalist as well as Sinn Fein; and 
collections were taken up in the parishes to support a 
campaign of obstruction. Home Rule had not yet 
been given; Ireland was neither loyal nor contented, 
though the enemy was almost at the gates. Every 
day the war was more dreadful, but the aloofness of 
Ireland was more steadfast, heartless, and cool. Dur- 
ing these days most of the Irish members were either 
not present in the House of Commons, or when they 
spoke it was with bitterness and chilling resentment. 
Ireland was seething with discontent, and not willing, 
except for the Ulster Unionists, any longer to assist 
in the war. What Prussian authorities would have 
done in such circumstances everybody but the Irish 
seemed to know very well; but Sinn Fein was believed 
to be in treasonable correspondence with Germany as 
it had been two years before. 

Conscription was the law but it was not yet en- 
forced, and was destined, indeed, not to be brought 
into effect ; but neither was any Home Rule obtained. 
In June, 1918, Lord Curzon announced that efforts 
would be made to recruit Irishmen by voluntary en- 
listment, and that meanwhile compulsory service 
would not be exacted. At the same time he said that 
in view of the present circumstances, and in considera- 
tion of recent revelations about Sinn Fein, the govern- 
ment did not deem the present an opportune occasion 
for the setting up of Home Rule. Thus was the mat- 
ter put aside for a period not yet determined. 

And now the last state of things was worse than the 



416 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

first. At the beginning of the war most Irishmen 
seemed to acquiesce in the Nationalist leadership, and 
the Nationalists seemed to be loyal supporters of the 
supreme authority in London. Had self-government 
been established in Ireland all might have been well — 
we cannot be sure; but very great difficulties in a 
grievous time had caused the doing of this to be post- 
poned. The majority of Irishmen had not been will- 
ing to subordinate even temporarily their own particu- 
lar questions to the greater ones which concerned all 
the world, and, impatient at any delay, the mass of 
them gradually drifted away from their leaders to the 
radicals, and in the end, when the Nationalist lead- 
ers tried to keep their following, they had to be al- 
most as resolute in their opposition as Sinn Fein, with 
which at times they seemed in accord. Even then 
Sinn Fein grew and thrived with new strength. It 
is true, as Irishmen in Ireland grew cold toward the 
war and drew away from Great Britain, Irishmen 
beyond the seas, with wider view seeing more clearly, 
and gradually coming to the fullest support of the 
Allies in their struggle for the freedom of the world, 
at length were impatient at the aloofness of their 
people in the home land. As they threw themselves 
heart and soul into the war, and at the same time the 
foolish dealing of Sinn Fein with Germany was more 
apparent, some of the leaders in Ireland were alarmed. 
The Nationalists repudiated connection with Sinn 
Fein, and presently decided to go back to the House 
of Commons. Mr. Dillon, their leader, issued an ap- 



THE HOME RULE QUESTION 417 

peal to Irish- Americans not to believe that Ireland 
was pro-German, and not to be prejudiced against 
them for what they were doing: But meanwhile Na- 
tionalist voters were rapidly going to Sinn Fein. 

A system of Home Rule would almost certainly 
have been established in Ireland if the war had not 
broken out, and even in the midst of the struggle it 
might perhaps have been tried except for the Sinn 
Fein conspiracies, and the disorder attendant. But 
it should be noted that the most potent factor in caus- 
ing Home Rule to be withheld was irreconcilable dif- 
ference between Irishmen themselves, especially be- 
tween a part of Ulster and the rest of Ireland. 
Unionist Ulster had steadily supported both con- 
scription and volunteering and was thought to have 
taken a creditable share in the war, at the same time 
that Sir Edward Carson carried on the fight against 
ever subjecting Ulster to Home Rule; and while at 
the beginning of the war the British government had 
been on the point of putting Home Rule into effect 
despite the utmost opposition of Ulster, and seemed 
ready to use the British army in subduing the Cove- 
nanters and forcing them to obey a Dublin parliament, 
it was certain by the end of the struggle that most of 
the British people were not willing to employ armed 
coercion, and that undoubtedly no British army would 
ever be used for such purpose in the future. 



CHAPTER V 

THE QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 

Join the Army : Sell your soul, your country, and your 
God for the Saxon shilling. Join England's hireling mur- 
derers that pitchcapped and hanged your forefathers in '98, 
and that would do the same with you to-morrow. Your re- 
ward will be a life of immorality, and a dog's death in the 
gaol or by the roadside. . . . God Save Ireland and to hell 
with England. 

Poster issued in the west of Ireland, 1909. 

... die for England. Why should they? What have 
they or their forbears ever got from England that they 
should die for her? . . . This war may be just or unjust, 
but any fair-minded man will admit that it is England's war, 
not Ireland's. 

Letter of the Bishop of Limerick, November 10, 1915. 

THE Irish question, so difficult and involved, be- 
cause of old, half-forgotten conflicts, and present 
opposition and difference, from sense of danger, from 
rising nationalism, from desire for autonomy, because 
of stern adherence to the Union, was made more diffi- 
cult in the years of the European War by a factor 
which developed from the war itself, by something 
which enhanced resentment, increased hostility, and 
at last brought Britain and Ireland to such critical 
pass as existed in the Ulster crisis some years before ; 

418 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 419 

something which seems, indeed, settled now, with the 
end of the war, but is certain to leave in Ireland and 
particularly in England embers of hatred and con- 
tempt which will smolder and glow fiercely dull for 
many a day hereafter — the struggle for conscription 
in Ireland. 

As the great war continued the British Empire 
made ever mightier efforts to overcome lack of pre- 
paredness at the start. The conflict was being carried 
on upon a scale hitherto undreamed of: constantly 
more soldiers were needed. France gave all of her 
manhood that could fight, and so did Germany ; Rus- 
sia used her men prodigally, but could not equip other 
millions who were waiting; all the time it was neces- 
sary for the United Kingdom to do more. When 
England entered the war, it was her expectation that 
she would hold the sea, with some other assistance if 
needed, while Russia and France did the principal 
fighting on land ; but it was soon evident that this was 
not enough, since Germany, because of superior prep- 
aration and resources, was alone ready to conquer on 
land, and in the first year, while some of her foes 
were preparing to resist her, took possession of parts 
of Europe which made her resources definitely su- 
perior to those of Russia and France, and her posi- 
tion well-nigh impregnable. If the German com- 
bination was to be overcome, therefore, the United 
Kingdom must expend resources to the utmost, and 
a great army must be raised in the British Isles, upon 
a scale never dreamed of there before. How well this 



420 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

was done in Britain, and how well it was done after- 
wards in the sister commonwealth of the United 
States, all the world knows now; but Britain especially 
passed through difficulties very characteristic of Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples. 

It is in the essence of their character and in conso- 
nance with their customs and old tradition, that while 
they can be excellent warriors, they do not like war, 
and are unwilling to prepare for it, as a rule, until the 
imminence of war compels them; and that when they 
must raise an army, they have deemed it a privilege 
of freemen to fight by their own consent, and are very 
unwilling that any law give authority to compel men 
to fight as a duty. Not many ideas were better estab- 
lished than this in the minds of the British people; it 
had been developed because of their insular position 
and age-long dependence upon a navy, and had been 
fortified by experience in a long series of wars of the 
old kind, where Englishmen had fought as volunteers. 
It is well known how strong was this idea in the minds 
of Americans up to a few years ago, when they wisely 
and suddenly abandoned it under the threatening im- 
minence of enormous danger and also because of the 
experience of England, though the old idea continued 
to be a prepossession of some few whose intellect, 
finished in times very different, could not grasp the 
problems of the present. 

Great Britain began the war with voluntary service ; 
and never was that system more justified. Hundreds 
of thousands, and presently millions, of men, who 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 421 

would have wished nothing more than to be left at 
peace, enrolled in the service of the Empire, at a time, 
when often there were no weapons for them to use in 
training, and little equipment when they got into the 
field. Immense armies were raised in this way, 
armies which in almost any other war would have been 
sufficient. But presently it was seen that still there 
were not enough men ; and then it seemed necessary to 
prepare for a change of system. The best, the 
strongest, the most patriotic had volunteered, those 
with most spirit of responsibility and sense of public 
duty ; but when more were needed, it was found, as al- 
ways, that there were many not enough alive to the 
danger and not possessed with sufficient feeling of 
obligation to offer themselves for service. 

For some time Englishmen continued to struggle 
with the volunteer system, using all sorts of indirect 
pressure and compulsion. In the end, however, this 
did not avail, and dire necessity seemed to compel re- 
sort to an arrangement which would oblige those to 
serve who were not willing to do it of their own accord. 
Mr. Asquith was bitterly opposed to conscription, but 
gradually he yielded. The Labor Party was averse 
from it, as were many people, but about the end of 
1915, after the matter had been the subject of serious 
and increasing discussion, it was evident that such a 
measure would not be steadfastly opposed when the 
need was imperative. At length in January, 1916, a 
bill was passed to call upon single men and childless 
widowers from 18 to 40; and in the following May the 



422 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

government, on the advice of the military authorities, 
introduced another, providing for the compulsory en- 
listment of all males in Great Britain between the 
ages of 18 and 41 ; in neither case was the law to take 
effect in Ireland. 

Mr. Redmond and the Nationalists opposed the first 
bill for a while on the ground that necessity for it had 
not been established. When they withdrew their op- 
position to what was avowedly a purely British meas- 
ure, Sir Edward Carson urged them to ask for the 
inclusion of Ireland ; she was not doing nearly as well 
as England, he said, in the war. In May, Sir Edward 
asserted that the real reason why Ireland was ex- 
cluded from the provisions of the pending bill was Mr. 
Redmond's advice to the government; that this was 
a disgrace to Ireland; and that the authorities ought 
to suppress anti-recruiting campaigns in that country. 
Mr. Redmond, replying, declared that it would not 
only be wrong and unwise to attempt to enforce Irish 
conscription, but that such an attempt would be an 
insane thing as matters then were. He said it would 
have been well had the Irish possessed Home Rule in 
the two years past, for then things would have been 
very different; he had done his best for recruiting in 
Ireland, and his country had done well in the war. 
An amendment was moved to include Ireland in the 
scope of the bill, but the amendment was withdrawn 
without a division. 

Now came the Irish rebellion to embitter relations; 
and it was more and more often repeated now that 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 423 

Ireland had given in proportion to her population far 
fewer volunteers than England or Scotland, and that 
of the Irish volunteers a disproportionate number had 
been furnished by Ulster. All the time the war was 
more terrible, the need for men greater, and the ex- 
tension of conscription more discussed. The follow- 
ers of Sinn Fein had long maintained that no proper 
Irishman could ever have to do with the armed forces 
of Britain. Now the Nationalists were unyielding 
against compulsory service. In October Mr. Red- 
mond said that the imposing of conscription would be 
the most fatal thing that could happen to Ireland, and 
that he did not believe the British government would 
challenge a conflict about it. He declared again that 
proposals about conscription would not be listened to. 
On the other hand he asked that Home Rule be put 
into effect, that martial law be withdrawn, that prison- 
ers not yet tried for the rebellion be released. Let 
the government trust the Irish people. Mr. Devlin 
derided ministers who talked of fighting for the rights 
of small nations and yet kept down their own little 
nation with martial law. What must Irishmen in the 
trenches think of the system that prevailed in their 
island? The Nationalists could give the government 
no more co-operation as things were, but a great deal 
if Ireland received Home Rule. About this very 
time the Irish Unionist members recorded their opin- 
ion that the Military Service Act ought to be extended 
to Ireland. Mr. Asquith said that the situation was 
so bad that only by agreement could it be amended; 



424 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

everyone in Great Britain would welcome and assist 
such agreement. Mr. Lloyd George appealed to men 
of all parties to aid in improving conditions. The 
number of recruits from Ireland was small, and Irish 
help was essential. During all this time the govern- 
ment was vigorously searching for new men to add to 
its armies, but as yet it hesitated to force conscription 
on Ireland. 

Irish affairs now went from bad to worse. In 1917 
the idea of an Irish convention, to have Irishmen 
try to settle the difficulties themselves, was proposed 
by Mr. Lloyd George, and the idea was accepted in 
Ireland. But while the Convention was sitting, and 
while Irishmen were pondering the advice of their 
wisest citizens, the storm of the war loomed more im- 
minent over the islands in ever more terrific propor- 
tions. Vaster and vaster grew the conflict, and 
greater were the efforts which the Allies must make 
if they were not to go down in defeat. Men from 
Great Britain had volunteered by the million, and 
then others had been obliged to serve, and the age 
limits of those so compelled had been changed to in- 
clude still more. During this period Irishmen had 
not come forward in very great numbers; only about 
170,000 had volunteered altogether. At first under 
the leadership of Redmond there had been a generous 
outburst of feeling and considerable recruiting in 
Ireland, but this had not continued, and the numbers 
obtained there bore no proportion to those from Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Wales, or those which the over- 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 425 

seas dominions put forward. Americans, who have 
not been through a similar experience in this genera- 
tion, can only faintly imagine the deep scorn and the 
silent wrath, nay, the bursting sense of injustice that 
now arose in the hearts of the people of Britain. 
True, there were here, as always, two sides to the ques- 
tion. Irishmen declared that they would not volun- 
teer till they had Home Rule, and later they said they 
would not submit to compulsory service unless such a 
provision were imposed by an Irish parliament. But 
it must be said that adherents of Sinn Fein, and others, 
did not hesitate to affirm that Irishmen ought not to 
fight and would not fight in a war without interest to 
them. In Britain people who believed that the com- 
mon heritage of civilized mankind was at stake, and 
that the Allies were giving everything in a sacred 
cause, not merely their own but that of all others who 
shared the democratic, humanitarian culture of the 
western world, of Ireland as much as of any — they 
had to see Irishmen for the most part standing aside, 
refusing to volunteer, defying conscription, discour- 
aging enlistments, heaping odium upon those who 
came forward to serve, and all the while making heart- 
less complaints and bitter sneers, and accusations that 
England treated Irishmen with tyranny like unto that 
of the Germans. And this was taking place now at 
a time when the cause of the Allies was dark under the 
shadow of disaster sufficient to crush the best and most 
dauntless. 

Russia withdrew from the war. Unable to carry 



426 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

on a great modern struggle, lacking as she did the 
basic and essential industries, able only to give men 
in prodigal waste, she fought well, almost as long as 
she could, beset as she was with traitors, ruined by 
German propaganda and spies, without proper arms, 
munitions, or transportation. At last she succumbed, 
after unheard-of losses and suffering, endured in such 
manner that hereafter the story of it all will be as 
glorious as it is terrible and tragic. She was not able 
any longer to carry on an offensive war ; her railways 
were worn out, her fortresses lost, most of her trained 
officers captured or dead, most of her material of war 
ruined or in the enemy's hands. Now when the mili- 
tary organization was nearly impotent, and the suf- 
ferings of the people not to be endured, there came 
into the unhappy country through German connivance 
exponents of new and radical ideas. I know little of 
the Bolsheviki; but most people thought they were 
fools advocating impossible ideas and impractical 
changes at the most impossible time, or else traitors 
in behalf of the Germans ; though certain writers who 
dwelt aloof in a world of words and their own tenuous 
ideas proclaimed that here were prophets of a won- 
drous and splendid order to come in a golden future. 
Documents since published have convinced most per- 
sons that they were probably in German pay, and 
certainly lost in admiration of extremest socialist doc- 
trines. They completed the ruin of Russia for the 
time. The Muscovite army, if imbued with the spirit 
which has often before brought forlorn hopes through 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 427 

dark days to ultimate triumph, might perhaps have 
stood by the Allies longer facing Germany in defen- 
sive warfare; though it may be that even this was not 
possible. At all events, under the influence of radi- 
cals and propagandists, the Russian army melted 
away, and, after a little, resistance to the Teutonic 
powers came to an end, with the destruction of Russia 
sealed in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. 

Up to this time the power of the contestants had 
seemed about evenly balanced, with time and the 
greater resources apparently on the side of the Allies, 
though actually, so great were the resources which 
Germany had seized, time was working against them. 
Now with Russia out of the struggle, Germany be- 
came immediately, it would seem, stronger, and with- 
drawing most of her forces from the east front, pre- 
pared for a gigantic offensive finally to shatter her op- 
ponents. All the time that troops were moved across 
Europe, and the mighty stroke prepared, submarines 
were preying on the life of Great Britain, and threat- 
ening the basis of the power of the Entente. There 
was only one bright spot in all this dark prospect : the 
United States had come in at last, with her great re- 
sources and mighty industrial power. But America 
came late, and whether she had come in time or not 
only the future would reveal. It had taken England 
herself two years to get ready ; it might take America 
as long. 

So, during the winter of 1917 and the following 
spring, there was terrible uncertainty and there were 



428 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

crushing burdens for the Allies. Italy was struck and 
nearly destroyed. The submarine menace, less fright- 
ful than at first, continued unrelenting and cruel. 
The supreme effort of Ger.many was coming. Mean- 
while upon Britain, as the very heart of the alliance, 
fell enormous tasks, the making of munitions and 
more munitions, for herself and her friends, the build- 
ing of ships with feverish haste to stay the drain of 
her life blood, the keeping of her armed forces on land 
and on sea, and enlarging them as much as she could. 
Very desperate was the need for men. 

The English-speaking peoples, almost all of them, 
responded in glorious fashion. In the British Em- 
pire, including the dominions, were raised 7,500,000 
men. America, with wisdom bought from the experi- 
ence of others, adopted compulsory and universal serv- 
ice at the start, and began training her millions also. 
Only in Ireland and in the Canadian province of Que- 
bec was there unwillingness to take proper part. 
From Quebec with its French inhabitants scarcely 
any soldiers had come to serve in the war, and soon 
compulsory service was adopted in Canada partly for 
the purpose of making these people do what others had 
themselves freely done. In Ireland after 170,000 
men had been raised, Ulster contributing more than 
her proportionate share of them, enlistments were 
about at an end, and Ireland standing aside looked 
on at the conflict. Therefore it was that in Britain 
sterner demand arose that the compulsory service of 
Great Britain should be extended to Ireland as well. 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 429 

Unionist Ulster continued to be not unwilling that 
conscription should be imposed. Early in February 
Sir Edward Carson said in a speech in Belfast that one 
of the greatest mistakes of the government had 
been in not applying to Ireland the treatment given 
to the rest of the United Kingdom. But Celtic Ire- 
land was as bitterly opposed as before, and threatened 
resistance if ever the authorities carried conscription 
into effect. This feeling was led and fostered by Sinn 
Feiners ; it had grown as their power and influence in- 
creased, and was now very potent all over the island ; 
but it was shared by Nationalists also. 

In March, 1918, the Germans suddenly began a 
terrible offensive. All of their power and all of their 
strength were at last brought to bear in the west for 
one supreme effort. Now they would make a tri- 
umphant peace. With a blow that seemed like un- 
loosing the forces of hell they struck out from St. 
Quentin at the Allied line where British forces had 
just taken position, and driving through heroic re- 
sistance beat their opponents as British armies are 
seldom defeated, raced on almost as far as Amiens, 
and nearly opened the road straight to Paris. North, 
about Arras and Vimy, the British stood like a rock; 
but the lines oft deemed impregnable had been broken 
at a blow, and other blows were impending. The sav- 
age fighting died in a lull, but in less than three weeks 
came another stroke, and after fearful fighting the 
British were pressed back until Ypres was almost lost, 
and little was wanting to open the road to the Chan- 



430 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

nel. Again the enemy was halted, but he had got the 
initiative completely. Darker days still were coming. 
It was the very crisis of the struggle. If the war 
was not to be won by the Germans before the Ameri- 
cans arrived, then the Allies must put into the contest 
every man they could muster. 

April 9, the prime minister presented to the Com- 
mons proposals for bringing forth all the man power 
of the nation. From the great industries and trades 
men were to be called; the age-limit was to be raised 
to 50, in certain cases to 55; and the military service 
acts were to be extended to Ireland also. He said 
that the Convention had just reported, and that the 
ministry would shortly submit to the Commons a 
measure to establish self-government there. In a 
crowded House these announcements were received 
for the most part with approval, for few there were 
who did not realize the awful gravity of the moment. 
But most of the debate which followed was engrossed 
by the Irish members, who would hear of no conscrip- 
tion made thus for Ireland. Mr. Redmond, who 
doubtless would have led the opposition, was not 
there. His fine presence and wise and noble states- 
manship were not to be any more. The hand of death 
had been laid upon him and his brother. To Major 
Redmond death had come on a battlefield in Flan- 
ders; about the same time the Nationalist leader had 
died, crushed and embittered, died of a broken heart, 
at the wreck, so it seemed, of all he had striven for so 
long and so well. The Nationalists, somewhat in con- 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 431 

fusion, sat now under the leadership of Mr. Dillon. 
He declared that Mr. Lloyd George would get no re- 
cruits from Ireland. Mr. Devlin, alluding to the 
Convention, said that it would be impossible to im- 
pose compulsory service upon Ireland without the 
assent and co-operation of an Irish parliament. Ac- 
cording to Mr. O'Brien the proposal was a declaration 
of war against Ireland. That same day a meeting of 
Roman Catholic clergy in Dublin passed a resolution 
against conscription, and said that it would be the 
worst of blunders to attempt to enforce it. 

The Military Service Bill was passed rapidly 
through all its stages, and obtained huge majorities on 
second and third reading. Men were now to be called 
from 18 to 55; the bill might be extended to Ireland 
by the king through an order in council. On second 
reading Mr. Dillon attacked the measure bitterly, and 
challenged the government to try Irish sentiment by a 
plebiscite. Mr. Asquith said that the government 
had twice considered such a measure when he was 
prime minister, and each time rejected it. Self-gov- 
ernment ought first to be given. Mr. Bonar Law 
replying said that there was absolute necessity for 
applying conscription to Ireland, and that the feeling 
in Great Britain was very strong that it should be 
done. Two days later, on third reading, there was 
again a spirited debate. Mr. Henderson, leader of 
the Labor Party, asked the government whether, if 
they were unable to forego Irish military service com- 
pelled by law, they would not announce that the 



432 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

measure was to be put into effect only after Home 
Rule had been granted. Mr. Asquith supported this 
appeal. Mr. Devlin declared that the House of Com- 
mons was about to impose a blood-tax on Ireland, and 
demanded that Irishmen should be given the status of 
the men of Canada and Australia. If the govern- 
ment would bring into existence an Irish parliament, 
the heart of Ireland would be touched; he himself 
would be the first to serve in any capacity. Mr. 
Bonar Law concluded the debate. The Empire was 
passing through a deadly peril. Necessity compelled 
conscription in Ireland. The government would try 
to give Home Rule at once now. The members then 
approved the principle of Irish conscription by 281 
votes to 165. Irish Nationalists made a great part 
of the minority. On the other hand, Ulster Unionists 
desired such a provision, protesting that Ireland 
should take a just share in supporting the Empire in 
the war. But they were still bitterly opposed to 
Home Rule. Sir Edward Carson had already de- 
clared that the government was confusing the con- 
scription and the Home Rule measures. Now, when 
the Bill was in committee, he said that the ministry 
was offering the Nationalists Home Rule in return 
for conscription. Ulster, which did not want Home 
Rule, had been supporting conscription all along. 

The report of the Irish Convention and the debates 
in parliament were obscured by the rush of mightier 
events. It seemed for a moment that Ypres was lost. 
The British commander told his men that they fought 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 433 

with their backs to the wall, and his words re-echoing 
across the ocean, in America it was said that civiliza- 
tion was at bay. Here was no time for parliamentary 
obstruction or constitutional debate. Every man was 
needed, if men were to save their dearest possessions. 
Irish-Americans were serving loyally in the new 
armies of the United States, and while there was some 
opposition to Irish conscription in a few American 
journals and on the part of many Irish- Americans, 
most of the press and some Irish-Americans talked 
now of the duty of Ireland and of the part which they 
hoped Ireland would play. In America and else- 
where, it is true, there was much feeling that the 
British government should settle the Irish matter so 
far as giving Ireland Home Rule was concerned, and 
it was believed that the government was pledged to 
do this, and ought to do it as soon as might be. But 
stronger and stronger also was the feeling, especially 
in the United States, that the question was a compli- 
cated one, in respect of which the difficulties of the 
British government had not always been properly con- 
sidered, and that certainly in such a time Ireland had 
her duties as well as her rights, that she had obligations 
no less than Great Britain, and that it was an unhappy 
spectacle in this dreadful moment to see Ireland tak- 
ing little part in the war, and resisting the conscription 
which was necessarily being applied in other countries 
opposed to Germany and in the other parts of the 
British Isles. 

Ireland was unyielding, however. Nationalist 



434 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

members of the House of Commons resolved to remain 
in Ireland to resist the enforcement of conscription, 
declaring that such enforcement without the consent 
of Ireland would be brutal tyranny and oppression. 
Addressing a great throng in Belfast, Mr. Devlin ad- 
vised that the act just passed be in no way recognized, 
and that no man should register his name. The op- 
position which had been begun by Sinn Fein, and 
then been taken up and carried further by the Na- 
tionalist Party, was made more effective and carried 
further still by the Roman Catholic clergy. Every- 
where high ecclesiastics and parish priests united in 
advising their parishioners to resist. At Tipperary 
10,000 people pledged themselves, and the priest who 
administered the pledge advised them to keep it unto 
death. At Queenstown there were many who stood 
with heads uncovered to repeat the oath after the 
Bishop of Cloyne. It was no long time before the 
clergy had done against conscription what they had 
once done against Parnell, and what they had pre- 
viously accomplished for O'Connell. For good or for 
evil, resistance to conscription had been made the 
strongest feeling in Ireland; and this feeling, as so 
often before, was being guided and fostered by the 
priests, whose influence often was decisive. It was 
very different in Quebec, where after a bitter opposi- 
tion had been made, a law for compulsory service was 
passed, and the Roman Catholic clergy assisted re- 
cruiting and helped to restore good relations between 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 435 

the people of Quebec and the other inhabitants of the 
Dominion. 

Meanwhile England, rightly from her point of view, 
prepared to enforce the new law. It is true that she 
proposed to give Home Rule at the same time, but 
this was not very easy to do. The Convention had 
presented an excellent report, but unfortunately, 
while a majority had acceded, the report was nothing 
more than an expression of opinion, not binding upon 
Irishmen, and it had not been accepted by the Ulster 
Unionists, who continued as before the principal ob- 
stacle in the way. Accordingly, the government was 
faced by nearly the same difficulties as in 1914. Un- 
der the circumstances it did not feel that it could en- 
act the recommendations of the Convention into a 
Home Rule law, even though it greatly desired to 
settle the Irish question by giving Home Rule. 
Ulster would not leave the United Kingdom, and 
Great Britain was now unwilling to coerce her. So 
there seemed nothing to do but attempt to find some 
settlement which would be more acceptable to all 
Irishmen, and this was very difficult, in the midst of 
the greater things happening not very far off in 
France. 

Discontent and disorder increased. Again the 
lead seems to have been taken by Sinn Feiners, many 
of whom had come back to Ireland at the time of the 
amnesty preceding the Convention. They were still 
as they had been. The work of the Convention, with 



\ 



436 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

which they would have nothing to do, had appeased 
them not at all. Now conscription made them go 
farther along their old way. It is asserted that they 
took up again the work they had done in the early 
part of 1916. In May the lord lieutenant issued a 
proclamation declaring that there was a pro-German 
conspiracy, and this was quickly followed by the raid- 
ing of Sinn Fein headquarters and the arrest of the 
leaders, some of whom had had part in the Easter Re- 
bellion. Presently the British government published 
from the documents taken evidence purporting to 
show that Sinn Fein had entered into correspondence 
with Germany for the furtherance of its measures. 

About the same time that the Sinn Fein treason was 
announced by the authorities, the Germans made an- 
other gigantic assault, and breaking through the 
French lines at Chemin des Dames, rushed forward 
until they came to the Marne once more. Rheims 
seemed on the point of falling, the whole line might 
collapse, another thrust like it and the Germans would 
probably win Paris. At this time it could not be 
known that fortune was about to turn, swift and de- 
cisive, that in less than two months there would be a 
million Americans in France to assist, to encourage, 
to inspire, and that the British and the French, stand- 
ing firm against the next German assaults, would be- 
gin a glorious offensive and, with assistance from 
the new American armies, change the whole course 
of the war. As yet this was hid in the future. The 
Allies were at the nadir of the war, and their hearts 



QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION 437 

might well break with discouragement and despair. 
But there was little sympathy from Ireland, and the 
heartless words of Irish members in the Commons at 
this time will not be forgotten for a great while to 
come. 

Conscription in Ireland had almost led to bloodshed 
and strife, but the issue was avoided now largely be- 
cause the government was not willing to press it to 
conclusion. Compulsory service was not enforced, 
while the Irish were invited to make up their quota by 
enlistment. Some Irishmen warmly assisted, but lit- 
tle was thus accomplished. And while recruits came 
forward slow, and in scanty numbers, the great war 
suddenly ended, and the whole matter was changed 
from a present dangerous dispute to one of those 
things, so frequent with Ireland and England, thrust 
back to the past, but still potent through memory to 
keep the two peoples apart. For notwithstanding 
the improvement of late, Ireland, because of Sinn 
Fein and conscription, was farther from England than 
ever in the last generation ; and in place of the gener- 
ous sentiment so strong shortly before in the hearts 
of the British people there burned now feelings of 
contempt and despite and sense of injustice and 
wrong. What the event will be depends greatly on 
how long these feelings endure. Many things in these 
years must be forgotten. 



CHAPTER VI 

AMERICA, GREAT BRITAIN, AND THE IRISH QUESTION 

In the interests of the Empire I feel very strongly that it 
is imperative that the Irish question should be settled on 
lines which will satisfy the sentiment of the oversea democ- 
racies, both in our self-governing Colonies and in the United 
States. . . . What a happiness it would be for Ireland, what 
a happiness it would be for England, what a happiness it 
would be for the whole of the English-speaking race, if this 
great and happy reconciliation could be effected . . . such 
a result . . . would bring great relief and an increase of 
new strength to the State, and . . . once accomplished would 
bring, not only to the United Kingdom, but to the whole 
English-speaking people, advantages and blessings the value 
of which it would be difficult to compute. 

Speech of Earl Grey in the House of Lords, 

January 27, 1913. 



I 



N the course of this writing I have assumed that 
something is certainly wrong in the Irish situa- 
tion, that this wrong should be righted as soon as may 
be, that liberal England desires very much to find a 
satisfactory and proper solution, that the British peo- 
ple wish to do all they can to assist such solution, but 
that there are enormous difficulties in the way, not 
transient and superficial but fundamental and intrin- 
sic. I believe that a correct appreciation of the gen- 
eral bearing of the question and its difficulties has not 

438 



THE IRISH QUESTION 439 

generally existed in this country, partly through lack 
of information, partly because of American attitude 
towards England, and partly from the feeling of 
Irish- Americans. 

The relations between Great Britain and the United 
States have long been better than the feeling of the 
British and American peoples for each other. Since 
the so-called War of 1812 there has been no actual con- 
flict, and disputes have all been settled peaceably, with 
constantly better spirit of compromise and good-will. 
Certainly at the end of the nineteenth century Britain 
and the United States trusted each other, and re- 
garded war with each other as unthinkable. So good 
had relations become that statesmen on both sides of 
the Atlantic began to look forward to the day when 
there would be some sort of an alliance or union. 

Actually, however, there remained a good deal of 
coldness and disapproval. Each one could see clearly 
the faults of the other, and was disposed to judge with 
the harshness which members of the same family some- 
times use. It is difficult to know, but after being in 
England for a while I was convinced, notwithstanding 
some lamentable and offensive exceptions to the con- 
trary, that Englishmen had developed towards us a 
juster, more charitable, and kindlier feeling than we 
had for them. Certain it is that while Americans 
realized from the first the splendid merits of the 
French in this war, they had at the start no great en- 
thusiasm about England and her equally magnificent 
achievements, and that while happily with many this is 



440 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

no longer so, yet the change was slow and for some 
time not marked by any warm or generous expression. 
This is partly because we know the French much less 
well, so that when we admire, we admire more ex- 
travagantly; but it is also because of other things 
which go back for a great many years. 

Americans separated from England violently in 
the Revolutionary War, and this struggle and the 
other one later left in England a feeling that there had 
been base ingratitude, that a thankless child had aban- 
doned its parent and friend as soon as it could, and 
in the United States strong conviction that Americans 
had thrown off the shackles which a tyrant had striven 
to impose. Old ties of love and devotion being sun- 
dered, they were presently half obliterated and for- 
gotten. Inevitably bitterness and recrimination 
arose. The people of Great Britain, properly from 
their point of view, looked upon Americans, whom 
they did not know very well, as rude and uncultured, 
as rough and uncouth, as pioneers and beginners, un- 
developed and provincial; and there was certainly a 
great deal of truth in all this. But from their own 
point of view Americans, while resenting the criticisms 
of British travellers and writers with all the quick 
sensitiveness of newcomers in the presence of those 
well-established, yet looked upon Englishmen as slug- 
gish people who unlike themselves endured govern- 
ment by aristocracy and king. Once the separation 
was complete there was much divergence between the 
two branches of the race; for Americans advanced 



THE IRISH QUESTION 441 

somewhat faster along the road to democracy than the 
people of Britain, and often between the American 
government and the aristocratic authorities of Eng- 
land there was little sympathy and small understand- 
ing. But in the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
the people of the British Isles developed one of the 
best democracies in the world, and this, along with 
changed position in international affairs, made Eng- 
land constantly more sympathetic toward America 
and ever more desirous of her friendship. 

What stood in the way now was the force of tradi- 
tion and evil memories of things long since done or 
for a great while misunderstood. Old belief that the 
United States had won freedom from a hateful Eng- 
lish tyrant, that Englishmen had not the free govern- 
ment which Americans had won for themselves, that 
England was not really friendly to the United States, 
but ever on the alert to better her own selfish interests, 
these ideas were widely held by many of the less well- 
informed in America, whose only knowledge came 
from inferior text-books filled with archaic mistakes, 
and whose prejudices were fostered by commoner 
politicians playing on that ignorant patriotism so 
often helpful to scoundrels. 

To all this must be added the fact that undoubtedly 
a great deal of vicious propaganda was done before 
the war, rather through dupes than with bribes, pos- 
sible from poor acquaintance and misapprehension. 
Americans and British, much alike, are somewhat un- 
like, and the differences were used here to strengthen 



442 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

a belief that Englishmen were insular, opinionated, 
obstinate, slow, and obtuse, lacking in taste, smug, 
hypocritical, offensive. Not long ago a book was pub- 
lished to maintain that the Encyclopcedia Britannica 
was spreading many of these worse qualities among 
us and hiding from us better things elsewhere. It is 
certain that Englishmen have faults, sometimes not 
pleasant; but if Americans are ignorant of their own 
it is from lack of sophistication often characteristic of 
young peoples. Far more important it is that Amer- 
icans and British, different though they are in many 
ways, and faulty as they both are in some ways, are 
yet very like to each other, are more closely related 
than any other great peoples in the world, and are, 
along with the French, who can never be quite so close 
or intelligible to either of them, the foremost expo- 
nents of democracy, humane civilization, international 
honesty, and fair play in the world. There can be no 
better task for the enlightened people of the United 
States and of the British Empire than to try to under- 
stand each other better, to appreciate fundamental 
common good qualities, and act together hereafter. 
It has been wisely said that herein, most probably, lies 
the best hope for a real league of nations in the future. 
There has been one particular obstacle to the better 
relations of America and England the magnitude of 
which it is difficult to know, and that is the hostility 
toward Britain of the Irish men and women who set- 
tled in our midst, and whose descendants now make 
up one of the principal stocks in the United States. 



THE IRISH QUESTION 443 

Almost all of them went from Ireland in the midst of 
discrimination and oppression or at a time of economic 
hardship and terrible disaster. The Scotch-Irish, 
who had so much to do with the resistance of the 
colonies in the Revolutionary period, went out of Ire- 
land because of the old industrial and commercial re- 
strictions which England imposed in the Mercantile 
era. Many of them brought unyielding hostility to- 
wards England; and Molyneux's old pamphlet may 
have been remembered by those who would pay no 
taxes without representation. Irishmen eagerly abet- 
ted the revolt against England, and some of them took 
a prominent part in the struggle. "Charles Thomp- 
son of Strabane was secretary of the Continental 
Congress. Eight Irishmen, passionate organisers of 
the revolt, signed the Declaration of Independence. 
After the war an Irishman prepared the Declaration 
for publication from Jefferson's rough draft: an 
Irishman's son first publicly read it ; an Irishman first 
printed and published it." 1 Through the long years 
when hostility towards England was slowly diminish- 
ing, it was often strengthened again by Irishmen, 
and it was enormously increased when about the mid- 
dle of the century famine and disease and the clear- 
ances drove such ffreat numbers of Irishmen out of 
the old country mostly to the United States. They 
left their home in the deepest misery, and thev on me 
to their new one with the utmost bitterness. There 
they worked well, prosoered, and gathered to them- 

i Mrs. Green, Irish Nationality, p. 181. 



444 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

selves consequence and power. They took a very im- 
portant part in the Civil War, fighting for the North, 
and in the years after they were not only one of the 
largest elements in the population of America, but 
acquired a political power even more significant than 
their numbers. In the fast developing and often ill- 
managed cities they often got political direction 
largely to themselves, bringing the spirit if not the 
form of tribal and clan government, the personal re- 
lationship of henchman to boss, rather than effective 
municipal management. And their political power 
was seen in Congress itself, where their influence was 
always potent, and where sometimes they had, what 
their brethren abroad got in London, the balance of 
power. Numberless Irishmen had become successful 
business men, lawyers, and men of affairs, and the 
finer qualities of the Celtic race, vivacity, brilliancy, 
warmness of heart, endeared them to their fellows in 
the commonwealth. Therefore they were able to ex- 
ert much influence and even control in politics and 
foreign policy, and this influence was on occasion 
nearly always exerted against Great Britain, and is 
now thought by many to have been one of the princi- 
pal factors in keeping England and America apart. 
Such estimate is always difficult, and perhaps their 
part has been exaggerated, but certain it is that British 
statesmen working for closer relations have often 
found their efforts mysteriously thwarted, and Amer- 
ican statesmen themselves have confessed that they 
were hindered by Irish-Americans. 



THE IRISH QUESTION 445 

Irish- American affection for Ireland is a beautiful 
thing, and the dislike of England in the past is at 
least understandable; but hatred of Britain ought to 
have softened with time and lessened as Ireland was 
properly treated. This has not been so because 
Irishmen in America, when they thought they were 
decrying evils of the present very often inveighed 
against wrongs in the past. They lived far away 
from England and Ireland, and really knew as little 
about Irish matters and British matters as Americans 
generally knew about foreign affairs. They were, in- 
deed, constantly informed and re-informed, but their 
teachers were usually extremists who had left the 
British Isles to preach violence and hatred in 
America, and certain Irish-American newspapers 
which were founded originally on hatred, and con- 
tinued to thrive by stimulating hatred and keeping 
bitterness alive. It will be a hopeful sign both of the 
informedness and the proper spirit of our Celtic fel- 
low-citizens when many of these journals, if continu- 
ing in the same spirit, find that they have too few 
readers to justify further appearance. Irishmen in 
this country owe it to themselves, to Ireland, and to 
the United States, to study the Irish question not in 
the bitter and narrow way it has been so repeatedly 
taught here, but with . proper consideration of the 
numerous factors involved and the manifold diffi- 
culties in the way, so that they may assist with coun- 
sel and wisdom in solving it, for the good of Ireland, 
the British Empire, and all of the English-speaking 



446 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

peoples. Their assistance is vitally important and 
earnestly desired. Certainly the Irish matter will 
never be properly adjusted through blind denuncia- 
tion and ignorant hardness of heart. 

In so far as Irish-Americans possessed great power 
in the United States their attitude was of funda- 
mental importance in the early part of the war. So 
enormous was German military power, and so huge 
the strength long prepared, that only a succession of 
interventions, that might not have transpired, kept 
Germany from triumph. Had Belgium not resisted, 
France might have been crushed at once. France 
must have succumbed, and after her Russia, had the 
British Empire not entered the war. After a bitter 
struggle it was probable that the resources controlled 
by the Central powers would give them the victory in 
the end, if the mighty weight of the United States 
were not brought in against them. It is evident now 
that Germany had long laid her plans to keep out the 
United States, and some of her efforts had to do with 
making the American people hostile to Great Britain, 
especially through prejudice felt by Irish- Americans. 
We have passed through the years of doubt and inde- 
cision in which at last these machinations came to 
naught, with most of our people turning from her 
crimes with horror, and in the end willing to follow 
their great leader as far as honor and necessity led 
them. During these years the sentiment of Irish- 
Americans was, on the whole, very fine. Some irre- 
concilable people seem to have lent themselves to 



THE IRISH QUESTION 447 

German intrigue, if they did not take Germany's 
gold; some of the radicals urged Irish independence 
as they would support a compromise peace or a 
Bolshevik Russia; and some of the American Sinn 
Feiners apparently abetted German plotting to make 
rebellion and disorder in Ireland. But as far as one 
may judge, most Irishmen here sympathized warmly 
with the Allies, shrank from the outrages of Ger- 
many, and if they did not admire and respect Great 
Britain, yet scarcely attempted to keep America from 
helping her and the Allied cause, and once America 
was in the war gave eager and loyal service. Well 
would it have been had Irishmen in Ireland taken so 
fine a part as their brethren in the United States. 
When the fate of the British Empire was, perhaps, 
trembling in the balance, along with the fate of all the 
free nations of the world, Irish-Americans might have 
done much to keep America from assisting France and 
England. In so far as they did not do this their con- 
duct has helped to save democracy and freedom, and 
they have allowed the United States and the British 
Empire to come into closer relations than ever before. 
England and the United States will remain in 
closer communion if Americans and British under- 
stand better the difficulties and problems on both sides 
of the Atlantic. There has been no greater obstacle 
than the Irish question. I believe that a better com- 
prehension of it would cause most Americans to view 
it somewhat differently than heretofore, with sym- 
pathy for the perplexities of England as well as for 



448 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the aspirations of Ireland; and it is not impossible 
that Irish-Americans viewing the matter more wisely 
might cause Irishmen at home to see it more broadly 
and more truly also. 

There is no doubt that Ireland once suffered griev- 
ous wrongs. But most Irishmen have been inclined 
to speak solely of these wrongs, and Irish-Americans 
have heard little of anything else. Englishmen now- 
adays admit them, they have professed repentance, 
and tried to make atonement for the past. Neverthe- 
less it is evident that these evils in former times arose 
not merely because of exceeding hardness and bru- 
tality on the part of Englishmen, but because of dif- 
ferent conditions and worse usages formerly. In the 
course of the nineteenth century England became 
liberal and democratic, and one after another the evils 
were removed from Ireland and remedies applied. 
Certainly some things remain to be amended; but 
where in the world do they not? Ireland is not Ar- 
cadia — much of the land is naturally poor ; grievances 
still remain, but all improvement needs time for com- 
pletion. The British people, before the war absorbed 
their attention, were doing their best to improve con- 
ditions in all respects in all of the British Isles; and 
I am convinced that the prevailing sentiment was to 
do for Ireland whatever was helpful and right as soon 
as it could be done. In the past Ireland was unfor- 
tunate, and she was treated very badly. It is more 
important in this present time to know that she is not 
treated badly or unjustly, that while things remain to 



THE IRISH QUESTION 449 

be amended, very much has been done, that she has 
no fundamental grievance arising from England, un- 
less it be held that it is wrong not to allow her to es- 
tablish a nation completely independent and separate, 
and that what her people need most of all is industry, 
and good order, and time, for achieving the realiza- 
tion of all their best interests. 

Sinn Fein and its idea of the complete independ- 
ence of Ireland I have tried to discuss sympathetically, 
from the point of view of Sinn Fein. But from all 
other points of view than its own I believe some of its 
plan to be wrong and unwise. All of the influence of 
geography, of history for the past four hundred years, 
and of dominant modern conditions, make of the Brit- 
ish Isles one group and one unit. Tearing them apart 
would be in direct opposition to these forces. As 
things have hitherto been in this world the separation 
of Ireland from Great Britain would most probably 
come only with the destruction of the British Empire, 
or else be symptomatic of near dissolution. Maybe 
a new era is at hand in which there will be no more 
wars or fear of war, no future international rivalries 
and danger, and if that come to pass then Ireland will 
no longer necessarily be so grave a consideration to 
Great Britain; but as yet we can only desire and 
strive to bring about, not make our decisions from 
premises hoped for but still to be established. Geo- 
graphically Ireland lies right across the most impor- 
tant sea-routes of Great Britain; strategically it can 
always be a threat during time of war, and it has 



450 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

always been an inviting base for an enemy's flank at- 
tack. That is the fundamental reason why England 
has striven so hard to possess it ; that is the reason why 
she must and she will control it. No people placed 
in Great Britain, unless sunk in cowardice and sloth, 
would not fight to the death rather than see a hostile 
Ireland independent and separate, or not view with 
dismay even one lukewarm and neutral. And that 
is exactly why a Germany, who cared nothing for the 
rights of other peoples and seized their lands wher- 
ever she could, was so anxious that Ireland should get 
independence. With such an Ireland in any way hos- 
tile to England never again could England make con- 
test with Germany. Well did the dupes of Germany 
and the haters of Britain understand this. "Eng- 
land, enclosed between a hostile Ireland and a hostile 
European power, such as Germany, would be in a 
position of grave peril as regards her food supplies," 
said one who wished Germany well. "Indisputably 
Ireland is the gateway of Europe, but she is also the 
keystone of British power and dominion on the high 
seas of the world. When Ireland passes out of Eng- 
lish possession the sun will have set forever on the 
British Empire." 2 Other things being equal, it has 
to be considered that the proper interests of the forty 
millions of Great Britain outweigh those of the four 
millions of Ireland; and if a sacrifice has to be made 
it is better that the aspirations of a few be denied than 
the safety of ten times as many. 

aMcGuire, What Could Germany Do for Ireland? pp. 126, 127, 



THE IRISH QUESTION 451 

Very true, if Irishmen were oppressed and trampled 
upon as were the people of Bosnia or Posen, if their 
language were proscribed, if opportunities were with- 
held, if they were denied any share in the govern- 
ment, if they were constantly treated as inferiors with 
contumely and contempt, then it might be very well 
for the lovers of Ireland to declare that the evil be- 
havior of the people of Great Britain forfeited the 
claims which Great Britain could properly make. 
But Ireland is not now maltreated: Irishmen have 
before the law exactly the same status and privileges 
which other people have in the British Isles; they con- 
trol their own local affairs ; they have such religion as 
they please unmolested; the British government puts 
no obstacle in the way of their learning and speak- 
ing the old Gaelic tongue if they desire it; and they 
have, so far as the government is concerned, the same 
economic opportunities as have other people in the 
United Kingdom. 

In short, Great Britain cannot with respect to her 
own proper interests permit Ireland to effect separa- 
tion and be independent, unless international rela- 
tions become very different, since her safety and na- 
tional existence are closely connected with Ireland 
whenever there is war; and Ireland is not so treated 
that Britain can be held to forego these considerations. 
Moreover, geographical and economic ties work to 
draw England and Ireland together. If Ireland and 
Great Britain were not in a United Kingdom, it 
would certainly be the first task of the wisest men 



452 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

in both countries to bring about some union between 
them. They ought then most certainly to be trying 
to effect a federation even as now the extremists wish 
to bring about separation. Those who admire the 
British Empire as one of the best and most beneficent 
organizations in the world, and who believe that de- 
mocracy and freedom will be strengthened in the fu- 
ture through a strong British Empire and the great 
English-speaking commonwealths in other parts of 
the world acting together, will not wish to see Ire- 
land achieve an independence which Great Britain 
cannot allow. 

Local autonomy, self-government, or Home Rule, 
whatever we call it, is another matter. If Home Rule 
is sought merely as a stepping-stone to separation, 
Englishmen must and should oppose it; but if Irish- 
men who are willing to remain loyally in the Empire 
yet desire to -have control of Irish affairs in their 
hands, the best opinion of the world is that they 
should have it, and I believe it is the intention of Eng- 
lishmen also that they shall have it. The present sys- 
tem is neither so bad nor so unfair as represented 
by partisan writers; but in accordance with the best 
of our traditions Irishmen should control their own 
affairs in their own way if they wish to do so. If it is 
true that Ireland is essentially a colony, then she 
should have as soon as possible the status of a self- 
governing dominion. The principal obstacle now re- 
maining is not reluctance of the British people but 
differences, hitherto insuperable, between Ulster and 



THE IRISH QUESTION 453 

the rest of the island. Surely in better times a solu- 
tion of this difficulty will be found. If all else fail, it 
may be that the question can be settled ultimately by 
an expedient approved long ago by Chamberlain, sup- 
ported more recently by Lord Grey and, so it is said, 
by Sir Edward Carson, and of late considered by Mr. 
Lloyd George, not Irish Home Rule but federalism 
or local control of affairs, not only in Ireland but 
rather in Scotland, in Wales, in parts of England, in 
Ulster, and in the other part of Ireland. As things 
are at present it is no more unreasonable for Great 
Britain to hold Ireland than it would be for Ireland 
to hold an unwilling Ulster. We had such a prob- 
lem once in the United States : during the Civil War 
West Virginia was made a separate state. It might 
be a splendid thing for Irishmen if all Ireland could 
unite under its own Home Rule; but if this cannot 
be brought about, there might not be unconquerable 
objection to having the two parts of Ireland mem- 
bers among a larger number of federal divisions of 
the United Kingdom. Federalization would be very 
advantageous to the government of the British Em- 
pire, for the parliament at Westminster is now over- 
whelmed by the mass of business, much of it Imperial, 
but a great deal unimportant and local. The legis- 
lators cannot attend to it all properly. Often they 
give only scant attention to matters concerning Wales, 
Scotland, Ireland, or the Midlands, but are obliged 
to give so much that they have insufficient time for 
what affects all the Empire. Federalism and the dev- 



454 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

olution of local business to local governing bodies, m 
other words, Home Rule for various parts of the 
United Kingdom, would leave the great parliament 
free to give all of itself to the governing of all. To 
this the great objection is that Ireland outside of 
Unionist Ulster is not willing to have Ireland divided. 
In some form, however, I predict with confidence that 
Home Rule will certainly be given. 

Some people believe the accusations of bad faith 
made by Sinn Feiners and Nationalist partisans, say- 
ing that it is evident Great Britain has no intention 
of giving Home Rule, since after so many promises 
and so many years it has not yet come, that Ireland 
has been merely cajoled and deceived, and that Eng- 
land took all she could from John Redmond and 
afterwards cast him away. There are no proofs 
whatever for such assertions, and they can only be 
made by telling one side of the matter and ignoring a 
great many factors. So far had Home Rule action 
gone at the beginning of the war that the party in 
power was about to pass the law, as it did shortly 
after, and appeared determined to force it through, 
even though many Englishmen and a considerable 
section of Irishmen themselves were strongly opposed 
to it. It seemed that Ireland was to get Home Rule 
even though it entailed civil war. 

At this moment came the great war. England was 
unready and in the greatest danger ; Germany had pre- 
pared unceasingly, and the preparations included 
every secret device and every expedient of bad faith 



THE IRISH QUESTION 455 

in the countries she was going to fight. In Belgium 
and France artillery platforms had been secretly laid 
for sudden military use; the whole world was filled 
with spies, propagandists, and agents of destruction; 
everywhere treachery and organized villainy had been 
industriously engaged in corrupting, undermining, 
and preparing destruction. These things are better 
known now than they could be then; but as soon as 
the war began it was evident that wherever there was 
chance of stirring up disaffection and creating dis- 
turbance among discontented or recalcitrant people, 
German agents had been untiringly active. If Ger- 
many could bring it about, there would be troubles for 
France in Morocco, for the United States with 
Mexico and Japan, for Italy in Tripoli, and for the 
British Empire in India, Egypt, and Ireland. Now 
conditions in Ireland at the beginning of 1914 were 
such that Germany might have great hope based upon 
them. There might be civil war between Ulster and 
the Nationalists, if Home Rule were put into effect. 
Germany certainly counted on this. On the other 
hand there were some who cared nothing for Home 
Rule but who wanted to dissolve all connection with 
Great Britain, and who would welcome the assistance 
of any power to bring it about. Actually within two 
years Sinn Fein did begin a rebellion at one of the 
darkest moments of the struggle, and was willing to 
accept help from Germany to make the rebellion a 
success. Moreover, as the naval warfare developed 
and submarines preyed upon British commerce, they 



456 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

began to operate about the coast of Ireland, and they 
would have got the greatest conceivable subvention 
in their work had the shores of Ireland been opened 
to their use. The great trade-routes from Glasgow, 
Liverpool, and London went past the north and 
south ends of Ireland, from which submarines could 
easily cut them. All down the west coast of the is- 
land, from beyond Lough Swilly to Queenstown, 
there were deep bays and indentations, ideal lurking 
places for submarines, where they might, if the in- 
habitants ashore wished, very well receive supplies 
and assistance. All this being so, and there being 
some people in Ireland not loyal to Great Britain and 
others who were hostile and declared they would wel- 
come the Germans, it would have been a very rash 
thing for Britain to relax the strictest control over the 
country so long as the dangers of war time continued. 
There was little doubt that in 1914 most Irishmen 
were loyal, some of them enthusiastically so. Most of 
them could certainly be trusted. But with some of 
them disloyal, and with German intrigue what it was, 
with the stake so great and the danger so terrible, 
no chance ought to have been taken. And further- 
more, even if Ulster and Nationalist Ireland had been 
able to agree on Home Rule, and even if both of 
them had had the best of intentions, giving such a 
thing during the continuance of the war would have 
brought in one of those dangerous periods of transi- 
tion in which disloyalty and treachery ever find their 
best chance. It is said that German submarines did 



THE IRISH QUESTION 457 

get some assistance on the Irish coast, as it was. In 
the confusion, however slight, of the setting up of a 
new system of government, and the loosening of old 
control, the disaffected elements might have been able 
to go much further, and bring about what would have 
been fatal to Great Britain and the Allies. Herein, 
I believe, is the principal cause of the reluctance to 
give Home Rule after the beginning of the war. 

It is very true, as some have argued, that once the 
Boers had been disaffected, and their loyalty had been 
got by wisely and generously giving them that which 
they wanted, by virtually yielding them control over 
South Africa, by giving them and the rest of the 
population Home Rule. It is true, the result was 
excellent. In a few years they became loyal and 
devoted members of the Empire, and when the great 
war broke out proved their loyalty by standing beside 
Great Britain and themselves waging war in her be- 
half. Surely the experiment worked well; but until 
the event, it was not certain that this happy result 
would ensue. Usually, we like to think, fine and gen- 
erous treatment begets gratitude and good faith; but 
it is not always so. It could not be absolutely cer- 
tain that if a great conflict broke out the Boers would 
not stand by in cool indifference or even take the in- 
dependence which they had failed to keep in the 
South African War. As a matter of fact, some of 
the Boer irreconcilables did unfurl the standard of 
revolt, as the Germans had hoped. It is important 
to remember, however, that with South Africa Britain 



458 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

was taking a chance which could in no way bring to 
her complete and irreparable disaster. But if such 
a chance were taken with respect to Ireland the result 
might be good, and perhaps it would have been, but 
not certainly; if it had been bad, the disaster could 
easily have brought the destruction of the British 
Empire with it. 

All these things must, I think, in fairness be taken 
into account when people say that England has led 
Ireland on in the years since 1914, giving her nothing 
of what had been promised, breaking pledges and de- 
ceiving her. And yet, even after it was certain that 
Sinn Feiners worked against Britain and spoke for 
Germany, after the Easter Rebellion, after German 
submarines had got petrol and supplies on the coast, 
England did declare her willingness that Home Rule 
should be given at once, none the less, if only Irish- 
men themselves could agree about it. At her sug- 
gestion a Convention of Irishmen was held, and Brit- 
ain proclaimed that she would be very glad if the 
Irish matter could be settled altogether by representa- 
tives of Ireland. After much difficulty a majority 
of the members agreed upon a report, but from this 
agreement Protestant Ulster dissented as violently 
as she had before about the Home Rule bills. Sub- 
stantially, therefore, the difficulty remained as before 
the Convention assembled. Whatever reluctance 
many Englishmen feel to change the existing Union 
and give Ireland Home Rule, the principal reason 
why Home Rule is not given now is that part of Ire- 



THE IRISH QUESTION 459 

land, and a very substantial and important part, res- 
olutely refuses to have it. It is to be hoped that 
through federalism or through the willingness of Na- 
tionalists and Ulstermen to agree Irishmen will get 
that kind of a government most suitable for them and 
most desired by them ; and most of the British people 
are willing that this shall take place. But the time 
of a death-grapple with the German Empire was not 
a propitious moment to bring such a settlement about. 
Finally, with respect to conscription in Ireland, it 
is not easy to make correct judgment. Many Irish- 
men felt strongly that compulsory service ought to be 
ordained only by themselves under their own autono- 
mous government, and that therefore conscription 
should come after Home Rule. It is easy to sym- 
pathize with this position, but there is much to be said 
on the other side. The conscription measure was cer- 
tainly legal. The Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland is governed by a parliament in which Ireland 
has generous representation. In this parliament con- 
scription was approved by a majority of the members 
attending. If it be objected, as many Irishmen did, 
that the essence of the matter was that the people of 
Ireland did not consider the government of the Union 
a proper one, that they had long wanted it changed, 
and hence were not justly obliged to obey it in this 
matter, that Home Rule should have been given to 
them before they were asked to be subject to com- 
pulsory service, one may observe that it is not neces- 
sarily justice to insist at a time of peril upon a change 



460 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

in the existing form of government as the price of 
compliance with something desired by the majority 
under the existing system. Irishmen may say, if they 
like, that "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportun- 
ity," but this has not within it sufficient nobility to 
win great sympathy in a time like that through which 
the English-speaking world has just passed, nor has 
it the fineness and fairness which English conduct to- 
wards Ireland in the past generation deserved, nor 
what the crisis of the period required. 

It might have been well if the people of Ireland 
had remembered the case of the suffragettes of Great 
Britain. For many years previous to the war a large 
number of women in Britain wanted the franchise, 
and for some years just before it a smaller number 
of them believed that withholding this privilege was a 
burning injustice, which they might properly protest 
by any violence and resistance. In their disobedience 
and denunciation they seemed to go farther than the 
extremest Irishmen; but at the beginning of the war 
they saw the two issues in their proper proportion, and 
immediately laid aside their quarrel, to be resumed, 
if necessary, they said, when the struggle was over. 
Suffrage has since been given to many of the women 
of England. We constantly hear talk about what 
England ought to do in order to win the affection of 
the Irish. I cannot but think that generous conduct 
on the part of the Irish might better have won things 
from the English than the heartless words and sour 



THE IRISH QUESTION 461 

opposition which came in the dark days of the labor 
of the world. 

As to the justice of compelling Irishmen to fight in 
the war, one arrives at different conclusions according 
to the premises he begins with. Many people in this 
country were strongly opposed to conscription, but 
we adopted it from the extreme necessity of the time. 
There were some so hostile to it that they condemned 
it wherever it was proposed. Many Irishmen, par- 
ticularly outside of Ulster, held that the war was no 
concern of theirs, and, like the French-Canadians, 
maintained that since they did not wish to fight they 
could not justly be compelled thereto by an outside 
and higher authority. In Quebec there was the bit- 
terest opposition, but after conscription was enacted it 
was obeyed and worked well. In Ireland, however, 
when the general opposition was marshalled by the 
priests, the British government yielded rather than 
force through the working of the law, though many 
thought it might easily have been put into effect had 
the authorities chosen to act sternly. As usual in the 
recent relations of Britain and Ireland, sternness was 
put aside by the government in an effort to effect a 
conciliation. 



CHAPTER VII 

CONCLUSION 

Clearly there is no ground of settlement with Sinn Fein. 
Its policy is too extreme. . . . 

The [London] Nation, January 11, 1919. 

We are less children of this clime 
Than of some nation yet unborn. . . . 

George W. Russell. 

IN the autumn of 1918, while destiny and fortune 
were leaving the Germans at last, Irish affairs 
went steadily on to their worst. In October, Mr. Dil- 
lon said there was no longer any alliance between 
the Irish Party and the Liberals in Britain, that the 
Nationalists were as free now as before the union ef- 
fected by Parnell, but that they were ready to join 
with any English party standing for true liberalism 
and Irish freedom. In the early part of the next 
month, when the collapse of the enemy was assured, 
he moved a resolution in the Commons that the Brit- 
ish government take no part in the approaching 
Peace Conference until the Irish question had been 
settled in accord with the self-determination pro- 
claimed by President Wilson. Mr. O'Connor said 
it would be a real test of Britain's sincerity, if after 
helping to liberate the Czechs and the Jugo- Slavs, 
she gave liberty to Ireland; and Mr. Asquith urged 

462 



CONCLUSION 463 

that, late as it was, such action be taken that when 
Britain went to the Conference Ireland might not be 
a standing reproach. Mr. Bonar Law replied that 
this was a domestic issue, with which the Conference 
could have no right to deal, but that Britain was ready 
to act generously and justly, if only a solution could 
be found. A few days later the war came to an end, 
and on the 25th the parliament which had lasted all 
through the struggle was dissolved. 

In the election campaign which now followed, the 
Irish question was directly an issue. Mr. Asquith 
asserted the importance of putting Irish self-govern- 
ment into operation. The Labor Party issued a 
manifesto in which it declared among other things 
that Ireland and India ought to have freedom, and 
that it would apply the war-aims of the Allies, giving 
to all its subject peoples self-determination within 
the Empire. Mr. Lloyd George said that Home 
Rule was essential for Ireland. It was a pity that 
Irishmen had chosen to stand aside in the world war, 
but the whole matter must be approached calmly now. 
There must be no coercion of Ulster, however, but 
probably some separate arrangement. In the elec- 
tion manifesto signed by himself and Mr. Bonar Law 
it was said that there could be no political peace for 
the United Kingdom while the Irish question re- 
mained unsettled, and that it was one of the first ob- 
ligations of British statesmanship to try to arrange it 
on the basis of self-government; but that two things 
might be regarded as settled : there was to be no com- 



464 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

plete separation from Great Britain, nor any forcible 
subjection of the six counties of Ulster. Meanwhile 
Sir Edward Carson again declared that Ulstermen 
would accept no Home Rule, and said it was now 
understood that the Coalition government would not 
coerce them. He and others urged that Ulster be 
more closely bound to Great Britain, and be subject 
to exactly the same laws. To this the southern 
Unionists were strongly opposed, insisting that there 
be the same arrangement for all of the island. 

The election in December was memorable for the 
sweeping victory of the Coalition in Britain, headed 
by Mr. Lloyd George, and supported by many Lib- 
erals, by most of the Conservatives, and the Irish 
Unionists. Altogether the Coalition got 478 seats 
out of the total of 707; and in the great rout of po- 
litical parties which brought this about, leaders like 
Mr. Asquith and Mr. Henderson, all who had failed 
to support the war to the utmost, and all who now 
savored of compromise, pacificism, or social extreme, 
were swept aside. The Labor Party, which con- 
tested 370 seats, won 63, while the Liberals saved 
from the wreckage of their fortunes but 28. Small 
as the Opposition could be, it was rendered smaller 
still by the fact that Sinn Fein, which had announced 
its policy of not going to the British parliament, had 
just swept over Ireland with a triumph equally de- 
cisive. 

As the Liberal Party was destroyed in England 
for the time, so was the Nationalist in Ireland. 



CONCLUSION 465 

There had been a lively, even bitter, campaign, with 
disorder at election meetings and violent speeches. 
A son of Michael Davitt openly declared that to vote 
for Captain Redmond would be choosing centuries 
more of industrial and national slavery. Every- 
where the contest was pushed by Sinn Fein, and they 
tried for 100 out of the 105 seats in the country. 
And the tide ran strongly with them. The Catholic 
Archbishop of Dublin, voting for the first time in 
his life, voted for one of their candidates. When the 
results were announced, it was seen that Ulster 
Unionist strength was unimpaired, and Sir Edward's 
followers had been returned by enormous majorities, 
but that the Nationalist Party had now ceased to 
exist, and outside the six Ulster counties and Dublin 
University scarcely an opponent of the aggressive 
new party had been elected. The Unionists had 25 
members, the Nationalists 7, and Sinn Fein 73. 
South of the Boyne and west of the Shannon Sinn 
Fein had swept all before it, and its triumph had 
gone to the very gates of the Ulster stronghold. The 
work of the Home Rule party had been discredited 
and cast aside with disdain, and the Irish problem 
was again fundamentally as before the days of Butt 

and Parnell. 

The success of this radical Irish party had been as 
rapid as complete. Less than three years before its 
political strength was negligible; now it had dis- 
placed the Nationalists, and assumed responsibility 
for guiding Ireland through the strange new times 



466 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

brought to pass. That responsibility was a heavy 
one. Many of the Sinn Fein members just elected 
were almost unknown outside of their constituencies. 
They had promised that they would try to get the 
Irish question solved, to bring Ireland before the 
Peace Conference, and make her an independent re- 
public. It would be far more difficult to effect these 
things than it had been to denounce the Nationalist 
leaders for failing to bring them about. 

Whether, if such things were really brought for- 
ward, the authorities would force the crisis by some 
drastic action, or allow the inherent weakness of Sinn 
Fein to develop, was not known, but it was soon evi- 
dent that the government would do much to avoid a 
collision. The Sinn Fein adherents styled themselves 
the Irish Republican Party. In January, many of 
the members just elected assembled in the Mansion 
House in Dublin, the lord mayor being an ardent 
advocate of Sinn Fein, and there solemnly calling the 
roll, even the name of Sir Edward Carson, they acted 
as a constituent assembly and proceeded to proclaim 
an Irish Republic, reading their declaration in Irish, 
in English, and in French. They demanded that 
Ireland be confronted with England at the Congress 
of the Nations, that the people of the world judging 
between right and wrong might guarantee to Ireland 
permanent support for the maintenance of her na- 
tional independence. For the present the Dail 
Eirann or Irish parliament was to consist of deputies 
elected by the Irish people from the existing par- 



CONCLUSION 467 

liamentary constituencies. There was to be a min- 
istry and a president for executive business. During 
this month President Wilson was as popular in Ire- 
land, where his help for independence was expected, 
as he was while in Italy at this very time, when it 
was hoped he would support pretensions to Fiume. 
He was invited to come to Ireland, and it was said 
the Lord Mayor of Dublin wished to go to France to 
confer on him the freedom of the city. Appeal was 
made to American soldiers in Ireland: "Many of you 
are kinsmen of ours. Did you win this war in order 
to rivet Ireland's chains?" 

All compromise was cast away now. For the 
present it was to no purpose that General Gough, 
Captain Gwynn and others founded a new party to 
get Irish self-government within the Empire, or that 
the chief secretary announced a liberal reconstruction 
policy for the island; most of the Irish people had 
been led to expect immediate independence and would 
have nothing less. In February, Prof. De Valera, 
who had defeated Mr. Dillon in the Nationalist cita- 
del of East Mayo, and who while in an English prison 
had been elected president of the republic, escaped 
from confinement, and after hiding a while presently 
appeared among his followers in triumph. Sinn 
Fein sent a representative to Paris to see President 
Wilson. He could get no interview, but he ad- 
dressed letters to the delegates asking that Ireland be 
admitted to the Conference and also to the League 
of Nations. 



468 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Actually, however, nothing had been accomplished 
but the setting up of a government which was unable 
to begin the work of governing Ireland, and which 
was not recognized by any other government in the 
world. To the Sinn Fein leaders the people of Ire- 
land had given the task of bringing about what they 
had encouraged the people to hope for; but no more 
had yet been attained than overthrowing the Nation- 
alists previously in power and arousing illimitable 
hopes. So, the popular enthusiasm which supported 
Sinn Fein might have greatly diminished as time 
went on, with the leaders doing no more than make 
threats and complaints. But that enthusiasm was 
sustained and increased by encouragement received 
now from the United States. 

In February there was held in Philadelphia a Con- 
vention of the Irish Race in America, attended by 
many prominent men, which passed a resolution de- 
claring, as had the Irishmen who proclaimed the re- 
public in Dublin, that a state of war existed between 
Ireland and England, which the Peace Conference 
could not ignore, and proposing that the Conference 
apply to Ireland the principle of self-determination. 
They agreed to raise a large sum of money to assist in 
getting Irish independence, and shortly after a cam- 
paign was begun in the press to get attention and win 
sympathy for the cause. Representatives were sent 
by the Philadelphia Convention to Ireland, where 
they were received with wild ovation, since they, like 
the Sinn Fein leaders just before, seemed to promise 






CONCLUSION 469 

that the Peace Conference would take up Ireland's 
case, and that Irish independence would follow soon 
after. Their activities were regarded by many of 
the British people with considerable coolness and 
suspicion. It was believed that no other government 
than the British would have permitted such delegates 
to act as these Americans did ; and it was thought that 
such tolerance had been a grievous mistake, since 
competent observers were now declaring that the Irish 
people were so wrought upon and so greatly inflamed 
that only by a miracle would it be possible to avert a 
rebellion worse than the one three years before. 

I hoped to accomplish some good by explaining 
the parts of a problem. My task has at no time been 
easy. I have meant to be just where often the way 
was not clear. It would have been less difficult to 
write for one side or the other, but already there are 
many such books. In America usually they tell 
nothing but Ireland's case, and it has been mentioned 
to me that my labor would be vain unless this work 
was thoroughly pro-Irish. I am unwilling to be- 
lieve it, but in any event I am content if my account 
be but fair and true. I can only say I had rather the 
book were not written than that anything in it should 
even remotely injure the cause of one Irish peasant 
or a single laborer in Dublin ; but I have been equally 
unwilling that England's difficulties and the good in 
her work and intention should fail to be stated in my 
pages. 



470 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

As my work is done, I speak of the future, asking 
critics to judge my prophecies more leniently than the 
narrative of the history preceding. 

Sinn Fein will fail. It would never have been so 
prominent but for the upheaval of the years of the 
war. But its work is not wholly in vain. Because 
of its very extremeness the moderate parties will be 
more able to compromise and settle the problem. 

The war being ended, the liberalism of England 
and the greater spirit of liberalism everywhere will 
shortly bring to Ireland the "freedom" and the "self- 
determination" for which she is asking, in some sort 
of satisfactory self-government within the Empire — 
just as soon as Irishmen agree among themselves. 

The difference between Ulster and the rest of Ire- 
land will abate, and they will esteem each other better 
in the future. 

After self-government has been established, Ire- 
land will draw closer to Britain in real fellowship and 
communion, and the British Empire and all of us 
will be better when this comes to pass. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I have attempted to make not so much an ex- 
haustive bibliography of the subject, which I think 
unnecessary in an account for general reading, as a 
list of books known to me or helpful in the writing of 
this work. 

HISTORIES OF IRELAND 

Green, Alice Stopford (Mrs. J. R. Green), Irish Nation- 
ality, London, 1911. One of the little volumes of the 
Home University Library series. It is written with 
vigor and much charm, but represents the ardor of re- 
cent Irish nationalism rather than critical handling of 
materials. 

Joyce, Patrick Weston, A Concise Histonj of Ireland from 
the Earliest Times to 1908, 20th ed., Dublin, 1914. 
A very useful little work. The earlier portion, to 
1608, is an abridgment of the author's larger book. 

Joyce, P. W., A Short History of Ireland from the Earliest 
Times to 1608, 3d ed., London, 1904. The careful 
work of an authority, and one of the best general his- 
tories of Ireland. 

Morris, William O'Connor, Ireland, 1494.-1905, Cambridge, 
1909. One of the volumes of the Cambridge Historical 
Series. Revised by Robert Dunlop, who added notes 
and the last chapter, on the period 1868-1905. 

Some of the best contemporary accounts, like the bonks 
of Edmund Spenser, Sir John Davies, Sir William Petty, 
and Bishop Berkeley, have been brought together in 



471 



472 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

A Collection of Tracts and Treatises Illustrative of the Nat- 
ural History, Antiquities and the Political and Social 
State of Ireland, etc., 2 vols., Dublin, 1860. 

A great deal about the history of Ireland is scattered 
through the records of the British parliament, and it need 
not be said that there is usually much information to be got 
from the general histories of England, especially in any of 
the editions of 

Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, A History of England in 
the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. The seventh and 
eighth volumes are altogether concerned with Ireland. 

ABOUT PARTICULAR PERIODS OR SUBJECTS 
IN IRISH HISTORY 

Bagwell, Richard, Ireland under the Tudors, etc., 3 vols., 
London, 1885. 

Bagwell, R., Ireland under the Stuarts and during the In- 
terregnum, etc., 2 vols., London, 1909. 

Barker, Ernest, Ireland in the Last Fifty Years (1866- 
1916), Oxford, 1917. An excellent little summary 
which I have found very helpful. 

Clerigh, Arthur Ua, The History of Ireland to the Coming 
of Henry II., London, 1908. A work of much research 
upon difficult problems of the period. 

Davis, Thomas, The Patriot Parliament of 1689, etc., Lon- 
don, 1893. Edited with notes and introduction by Sir 
C. G. Duffy. This is one of the volumes of the New 
Irish Library. It expresses an Irish point of view 
which Mrs. Green's work has made better known to 
English readers. 

Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, Young Ireland: a Fragment of 
Irish History, 181^0-1850, London, 1880. 

Dunlop, Robert, Ireland under the Commonwealth, 9, vols., 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 473 

Manchester, 1913. A selection of documents relating 
to the government of Ireland 1651—1659. 

Dunraven, The Earl of, The Outlook in Ireland: the Case 
for Devolution and Conciliation, Dublin, 1907. 

Froude, James Anthony, The English in Ireland in the 
Eighteenth Century, 3 vols., London, 1874. It was 
assailed by Lecky, who cited numerous errors. 

Grattan, Henry, Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Rt. 
Hon. Henry Grattan, 5 vols., London, 1839— 1846. 
This work was done by the son of the Irish leader. 

Green, Alice S., The Making of Ireland and Its Undoing, 
1200-1600, London, 1909. A series of chapters on 
the social and economic life of the Irish people. 

Green, Alice S., The Old Irish World, Dublin, 1912. 

Joyce, P. W., A Social History of Ancient Ireland, 2 vols., 
2d ed., Dublin, 1913. This excellent work, which is 
amply illustrated, contains studies about the govern- 
ment, the military system, the law, religion, learning, 
art, customs, and industries of the Irish people in olden 
times. 

Lecky, W. E. H., Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, 2 
vols. I have used the edition New York, 1903. 

Mitchel, John, Jail Journal, etc., Dublin, 1913. This 
classic denunciation of England, first published in 1854, 
was written by a leader of the Young Ireland move- 
ment, condemned to penal servitude, and, after his es- 
cape, long a refugee in the United States. 

Mitchel, J., The Life and Times of Aodh O'Neill, Prince of 
Ulster, etc., New York, 1868. A volume of the New 
Irish Library. 

Murray, Alice Effie, A History of the Commercial and 
Financial Relations between England and Ireland, 
from the Period of the Restoration, London, 1903. An 
admirable monograph. 

Murray, Rev. Robert H., Revolutionary Ireland and Its 



474 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Settlement, London, 1911. A scholarly and exhaustive 
work, with an introduction by the late Professor Ma- 
haffy. 

O'Brien, Richard Barry, The Life of Charles Stewart Par- 
nell, 2 vols., New York, 1898. 

[O'Brien, R. B., editor], Two Centuries of Irish History, 
1691-1870, 2d ed., London, 1907. In this work an in- 
troduction by Lord Bryce precedes a series of studies 
by specialists in Irish history. I have relied much upon 
their writing. 

O'Connell, Daniel, Correspondence of, 2 vols., New York, 
1888. Edited with notices of his life and times by W. 
J. Fitzpatrick. 

[O'Connell, John, editor], The Life and Speeches of Daniel 
O'Connell, M. P., 2 vols., Dublin, 1846. Edited by the 
son of the great "Liberator." 

O'Curry, Eugene, On the Manners and Customs of the An- 
cient Irish, a Series of Lectures, 3 vols., London, 1873. 
Edited with notes, appendices, etc., by W. K. Sullivan. 
The author was Professor of Irish History and Archae- 
ology in the Catholic University of Ireland. 

O'Donnell, F. Hugh, A History of the Irish Parliamentary 
Party, 2 vols., London, 1910. A critical treatment by 
one who was an advocate of Home Rule. 

Orpen, Goddard Henry, Ireland under the Normans, 1169— 
1216, 2 vols., Oxford, 1911. An example of the best re- 
cent work. 

Parnell, John Howard, Charles Stewart Parnell, a Memoir, 
New York, 1914. A biography of the Home Rule 
leader by his brother. 

Prendergast, John P., The Cromwellian Settlement of Ire- 
land, 2d ed., London, 1870. 

Redmond, John, Home Ride, Speeches of, etc., London, 1910. 
Edited with an introduction by R. H. O'Brien. 

Redmond-Howard, Louis G., John Redmond . . . a Bio- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 475 

graphical Study in Irish Politics, New York, 1911. 
By the nephew of the Irish leader. 
Taylor, J. F., Owen Roe O'Neill London, 1904. One of 
the volumes of the New Irish Library. 

In the works of two of the great classical Anglo-Irish 
authors especially are to be found writings of much interest 
about Ireland. 

Burke, Edmund, Works, 12 vols., London, 1815: 
in volume vi: 

A Letter to a Peer of Ireland, on the Penal Laws 

against Irish Catholicks, etc., 1782. 
A Letter to Sir H. Langrishe, Bart. M.P., on the Sub- 
ject of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland, and the 
Propriety of Admitting Them to the Elective Fran- 
chise, etc., 1792. 
in volume ix : 

Several letters on Irish subjects and Tracts Relative to 
the Laws against Popery in Ireland, also several 
letters on that subject. 
Swift, Jonathan, Works, edited by Temple Scott, 12 vols., 
London, 1901 : 
in volume vi : 

The Dr a pier's Letters. 
in volume vii : 

Historical and Political Tracts relating to Ireland, 

containing among many others, 
The Present Miserable State of Ireland. 
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor 
People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or the 
Country, etc. 

There are several works of travellers or investigators, do- 
ing in a more extensive and modern way what Davies and 
Petty did long ago. 



476 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

Hackett, Francis, Ireland: a Study in Nationalism, New 
York, 1918. A most interesting account of contem- 
porary and recent conditions by a moderate Sinn 
Feiner, who was born in Ireland, but does most of his 
work in the United States. 

Ireland of To-Day, Reprinted, with Some Additions, from 
the [London] Times, London, 1913. 

Paul-Dubois, Louis, Ulrlande Contemporaine et la Question 
Irlandaise, Paris, 1907. The best work of its kind 
about Ireland. 

Perraud, Adolphe, Etudes sur Ulrlande Contemporaime, 2 
vols., Paris, 1862. Another excellent description by a 
foreign observer, about the middle of the nineteenth 
century. 

Young, Arthur, A Tour in Ireland, London, 1780. One of 
the well-known accounts by this famous traveller and 
observer, 1776-1779. 

HOME RULE 

In studying the recent Irish issues, and especially Home 
Rule, I have collected abroad a large number of small pam- 
phlets, leaflets, and papers, which readers generally cannot 
obtain now, and which it would therefore be useless to list 
here. Of longer works : 

[Buxton, Charles Roden, editor], The ABC Home Rule 
Handbook, London, 1912. Published by the Home 
Rule Council, it contains matter in support of Home 
Rule which is very interesting and informing. 
Cambray, Philip G., Irish Affairs and the Home Rule Ques- 
tion, etc., 2d ed., London, 1911. From the British and 
Unionist point of view. Introduction by the Marquis 
of Londonderry. 
Hobson, S. G., Irish Home Rule, 1912. Strongly advocates 

Home Rule. 
Kerr-Smiley, P., The Peril of Home Rule, London, 1911. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 477 

By a Unionist member of parliament for Ulster; with 

an introduction by Sir Edward Carson. 
[Rosenbaum, S., editor], Against Home Rule: the Case for 

the Union, London, 1912. A series of excellent papers 

by leading Unionist statesmen, with an introduction by 

Sir Edward Carson and a preface by Mr. A. Bonar 

Law. 
Samuels, Arthur Warren, Home Rule Finance, Dublin, 1912. 

By an opponent. Foreword by Sir Edward Carson. 

For the recent Irish Convention : 
The Irish Home-Rule Convention: "Thoughts for a Conven- 
tion," by George W. Russell; "A Defence of the Con- 
vention," by the Rt. Hon, Sir Horace Plunkett; "An 
American Opinion," by John Quinn, New York, 1917. 

ULSTER UNIONISM 

Leech, H. Brougham, 18^8 and 1912, the Continuity of the 
Irish Revolutionary Movement, 2d ed., London, 1912. 
A Unionist exposition of the tendency towards sep- 
aration. 

Ervine, St. John G., Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster 
Movement, New York, 1916. A hostile and critical 
estimate of the Unionist leader by a brilliant contem- 
porary Irish writer. 

Hamilton, Ernest W., The Soul of Ulster, New York, 1917. 
A Unionist exposition. 

SINN FEIN 

O'Hegarty, P. S., Sinn Fein: an Illumination, Dublin, 1918. 
By an ai'dent advocate. 

Skinnider, Margaret, Doing My Bit for Ireland, New York, 
1917. Largely a narrative of the Easter Rebellion, 
but admirably revealing the spirit of Sinn Fein. 



478 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

THE REBELLION OF 1916 

Boyle, John F., The Irish Rebellion of 1916: a Brief History 
of the Revolt and Its Suppression, London, 1916. An 
attempt at an impartial account. 

[Joy, Maurice, editor], The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and Its 
Martyrs: Erms Tragic Easter, New York, 1916. 
Contains chapters written by some of the best known 
adherents of Sinn Fein ; fairly restrained, and affords 
a great deal of information about Gaelic nationalism as 
well as the rebellion. 

Norway, Mrs. Hamilton, The Sinn Fein Rebellion As I Saw 
It, London, 1916. By the wife of the Secretary for the 
Post Office in Ireland. 

Redmond-Howard, L. G., Six Days of the Irish Republic, 
Boston, 1916. A critical account from the Nationalist 
point of view. 

Stephens, James, The Insurrection in Dublin, New York, 
1916. A record by one who desired the welfare of Ire- 
land, but also friendly relations between Ireland and 
England. 

IRELAND AND GERMANY^ 

These two titles I cite merely as interesting examples of 

writing which had some circulation in America during the 

war. 

McGuire, James K., The King, the Kaiser, and Irish Free- 
dom, New Y r ork, 1915. 

McGuire, J. K., What Could Germany Do for Ireland? New 
York, 1916. With an introduction by Dr. Thomas 
Addis Emmet. 

THE IRISH QUESTION AND THE UNITED STATES 

Leslie, Shane, The Irish Issue in Its American Aspect, New 
York, 1917. A brilliant discussion by a moderate Sinn 
Feiner. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 479 

THE LITERATURE OF IRELAND 

Hull, Eleanor, A Text Book of Irish Literature, 2 parts, 2d 
ed., Dublin, 1910. This work, which treats of the 
Celtic literature of Ireland from the earliest times to 
the beginning of the nineteenth century, has the guise 
of an elementary treatise, but it is the work of a com- 
petent authority, the secretary of the Irish Texts So- 
ciety, and is the best general account in English. 

Much critical work in the study of the Celtic literature 
of Ireland has been done by English and, especially, by Ger- 
man scholars. But it is mostly special and monographic, 
and has no place in a list of this kind. The work of Dr. 
Hyde is more important for its purpose and effect than its 
scholarly value. The best large general treatise continues 
to be 

de Jubainville, Henri D'Arbois, Cours de Litterature Cri- 
tique, 12 vols., Paris, 1883-1902. 

For the cursory reader there is interesting information in 
such volumes as 
Boyd, Ernest A., Appreciations and Depreciations, Dublin, 

1917. Essays on George Bernard Shaw, George W. 
Russell, and others. 

Boyd, E. A., The Contemporary Drama of Ireland, Dublin, 

1918. An excellent account. 

Eglinton, John [William K. Magee], Anglo-Irish Essays, 
Dublin, 1917. Several papers on subjects in Irish 
literature. 

Graves, Alfred Perceval, Irish Literary and Musical Studies, 
London, 1913. Containing among other interesting 
papers an essay on Sir Samuel Fer<juson. 

Weygandt, Cornelius, Irish Plays and Playwrights, London, 
1913. A very useful account of the Irish theater and 



480 IRELAND AND ENGLAND 

the principal dramatic writers of the Irish Literary 
Revival. 



Among the masterpieces of Irish literature which have 

been translated or in some fashion rendered into English 

may be mentioned 

The Ancient Irish Epic Tale, Tain Bo Cualnge, "The 
Cualnge Cattle-Raid" now for the first time done en- 
tire into English out of the Irish of the Book of 
Leinster and Allied Manuscripts by Joseph Dunn, Lon- 
don, 1914. 

Ferguson, Sir Samuel, Lays of the Red Branch, London, 
1897. Poetical renderings from the Ulster Cycle. 

Gregory, Lady [Augusta], Cuchulain of Muirthemne: the 
Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster Ar- 
ranged and But into English by, London, 1902. Pre- 
face by W. B. Yeats. 

Hull, Eleanor, Cuchulain the Hound of Ulster, London, 
1909. 

Irish Texts Society Publications, London, 1899-. Texts 
republished with translation facing on opposite page. 
Containing among others the History of Keating. 



INDEX 



Abbey Street, 380 

Abbey Theater, 339 

Absenteeism, of landlords, 83, 84 

Act of Uniformity, operates 
against dissenters in Ireland, 88 

Act of Union, England and Scot- 
land (1707), 107; good results 
of, 108; motion to annul, 113 

Act of Union, Great Britain and 
Ireland (1800), character of 
writing about, 106; terms of, 112 

Addison, Joseph, 331 

Adrian IV, Pope, 33, 34 

Aenachs, or Fairs, 14 

Agrarian Conditions, in Ireland, in 
the eighteenth century, 82, 83; 
at beginning of nineteenth cen- 
tury, 11£ 

Agrarian Crimes, 197; diminution 
of, 204 

Agrarian Disorders, partial revival 
of, 210; after the defeat of 
Home Rule (1886), 251 

Agrarian Outrages, predicted, 277, 
278 

Agriculture, Irish, decline of after 
Napoleonic wars, 118; condition 
of before the Great Famine, 134; 
injured by repeal of the Corn 
Laws, 142; development of, 193; 
co-operation in, 218-222; gov- 
ernment supervision of, 221 

Aidan, 23 

Aided Chloinne Uisnig, 326 

Ailill, 324 

Alban, or Scotland, colonized by 
Gaels from Ireland, 23 

Alcuin, 21 

Alexander II, Pope, 33 

Alexander III, Pope, 34 

Alsace-Lorraine, 58 



Amending Bill, to the Home Rule 
Bill, 396, 397 

Americans, attitude of, toward the 
French during the Great War, 
439, 440; toward the English, 
439, 440; causes of misunder- 
standing between and the Brit- 
ish, 439 ff. ; understanding be- 
tween desirable, 442 

Amiens, 429 

Anchorites, 20 

Ancient Order of Hibernians, 275, 
277, 306 

Angevin Empire, 32 

Anglo-Normans, Sir John Davies 
on the conquest of Ireland by, 
32; decline of their power in 
Ireland, 44; fail to conquer Ire- 
land completely, 50; results of 
their efforts in Ireland, 51 

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 328, 329 

Animism, 15 

Annals, 329-331 

Annals of Clonmacnoise, 330 

Annals of Connacht, 330 

Annals of the Four Masters, 330, 
331 

Annals of Innisf alien, 330 

Annals of Loch Ce, 330 

Annals of Tigernach, 330 

Annals of Ulster, 330 

Anthropomorphism, 16 

Antwerp, 381 

Ard-ri, or Over-king, 9 

Armagh, 22; cathedral of, 326 

Arras, 429 

Art, in pagan Ireland, 24; in 
early Christian Ireland, 24 

Ashbourne Act, 206 

Asquith, Herbert Henry, on the 
continued demand for Home 



481 



482 



INDEX 



Rule, 242; becomes prime minis- 
ter, 255; proposes temporary 
exclusion of the Unionist coun- 
ties of Ulster from Home Rule, 
262, 308; on constitutional 
changes, 272; on punishment of 
the Irish rebels, 384; causes the 
Home Rule Bill to be passed, 
398; in Dublin, 398; on the situ- 
ation in Ireland, 399, 400, 423; 
proposes to bring Home Rule 
into effect, 401 ; fall of the coali- 
tion cabinet of, 403; opposed to 
conscription, 421 ; on conscrip- 
tion in Ireland, 431 ; on action 
as to Ireland, 462; in the elec- 
tion of 1918, 463, 464 

Assemblies, Public, in old Ireland, 
14 

Australia, 176; support for Irish 
Home Rule in, 290 

Austria, power of priests in, 281 



Baden, 281 

Bannockburn, 42 

Banshee, 17 

Bards, 329 

Barker, Ernest, on the British 
Empire, 159; on Sinn Fein, 368 

Bastille, 173 

Bavaria, 281 

Bede, History of, 21 

Belfast, employment of Catholics 
in, 281 

Belfast News Letter, on the indus- 
tries of Ireland, 304, 305 

Belgium, diminished power of 
priests in, 281 

Beresford, Admiral Lord Charles, 
on the geographical position of 
Ireland, 66 

Berkeley, George, 321 

Bernhardi, Friedrich von, opinion 
concerning Ireland, 67; on Ire- 
land, 372 

Bible, Luther's translation of, 345; 



King James translation of, 345; 
in Ireland, 345, 346 

Birrell, Augustine, Chief Secretary 
for Ireland, on the Irish Rebel- 
lion, 381, 382; position of before 
the Rebellion, 390 

Birrell Act, 209 

Bismarck, Otto Eduard Leopold, 
Prince von, social reforms made 
by, 190; on the English lan- 
guage in North America, 320 

Blackmail, 59 

Blease, W. L., on the Church of 
Ireland, 181 

Boers, self-government granted to, 
290; treatment of by Great 
Britain, 457; in the Great War, 
457, 458 

Boer War, Irish rejoice at British 
defeats in, 283, 289; services of 
Irish soldiers in, 289 

Bolsheviki, 426 

Bombardment of Part of Dublin 
in the Irish Rebellion, 379, 380 

Bonn, Dr., on the effecls of land 
legislation in Ireland, 214 

Book of Armagh, 323, 324 

Book of Ballymote, 323 

Book of the Dun Cow, 323 

Book of Kelts, 24 

Book of Leinster, 323 

Book of Lismore, 323 

Bopp, Franz, 317 

Border country, between England 
and Scotland, warfare in, 107 

Boru, Brian, saves Ireland from 
the Danes, 28, 29; consolidates 
Ireland, 29; death of, 29; great- 
ness of celebrated, 329 

Bosnia, 451 

Boulter, Archbishop Hugh, admin- 
isters Ireland, 89, 90; policy of, 
90 

Bowen-Colthurst, Captain, 385 

Boycott, intimidation by predicted, 
277 

Boyne, Battle of, 80, 295 



INDEX 



483 



Brehons, or Hereditary Lawyers, 
12 

Brehon Law, on hostages, 10; con- 
tent of, 1;?; value of, 33-2, 333 

Brest-Litovsk, 427 

Breton, 344 

Bridgit, goddess of wisdom, 16 

Bright, John, urges repeal of Corn 
Laws, 142; opposes Home Rule, 
250; on Irish desire for separa- 
tion from Great Britain, 284 

British, defeat of, 429; why unwill- 
ing to allow separation of Ire- 
land from Great Britain, 449, 
450 

British Army, calumnies about, 
283 

British Empire, character and de- 
velopment of, 159 ff. ; slanderous 
propaganda against, 160; Irish 
writers on, 160; German writers 
on, 160, 161; opinion of Treit- 
schke concerning, 161; of zu 
Reventlow concerning, 161, 162; 
causes of growth and success of, 
169, 170; in recent times Home 
Rule the foundation of, 266; ef- 
fort of in the Great War, 419, 
420, 428 

British Government, lenient policy 
of with respect to Sinn Fein, 
373, 374 

British Isles, history of the union 
of, 107 ff. 

Bruce, Edward, invades Ireland, 
42; death of, 43 

Bruce, Robert, 42 

Buckingham Palace, conference at, 
264, 397 

Burke, Edmund, on England's title 
to Ireland, 34; on the condition 
of the subject in Ireland, 95; on 
the connection of Ireland with 
Great Britain, 226; place of in 
Anglo-Irish literature, 321 

Butt, Isaac, first leader of the 
Home Rule movement, 244; 



views of, 244; character of, 245; 
results of the work of, 245 
Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord, 
on the evil of the Union, 106 

Cahiers of 1789, 168 

Canada, treatment of after rebel- 
lion, 176; support for Irish 
Home Rule in, 290 

Canadians, failure of to separate 
from England, 236 

Carson, Sir Edward, character of, 
258; declaration of, 261; on the 
determination of the Ulster 
Unionists, 293; on the Irish Re- 
bellion, 378, 382; enters the Cab- 
inet, 399; on conscription in 
Ireland, 422, 429, 432; said to 
approve of federalism, 453; in 
the election of 1918, 464, 465 

Casement, Sir Roger, 364, 365; 
captured by the British, 374; 
execution of, 394, 400 

Cashel, Synod of, 37 

Castilian, 344 

Castle Rule, unrepresentative char- 
acter of, 231 ; a cause of the 
Irish Rebellion, 393 

Catalan, 344 

"Cathleen ni Houlihan," 338 

Catholic Association, founded, 121; 
revived by O'Connell, 121 ; or- 
ganization of, 123; suppressed, 
123 

Catholic Committee, 121 

Catholic Emancipation, partly ac- 
complished in 1793, 99, 101; 
completion of desired, 114; fa- 
vored by Pitt, 114; opposed by 
George III, 114; struggle for, 
120 ff. ; favored by the Duke of 
Wellington, 125, 126; granted, 
126 

Catholic Emancipation Act, terms 
of, 126; how granted, 127 

Catholic Prelates, banished from 
Ireland, 85 



484 



INDEX 



Catholics, Roman, in England, con- 
dition of, 164 

Catholics, Roman, in Ireland, dis- 
crimination against, 85-87; de- 
sire complete emancipation, 101 ; 
objections to granting it to, 101; 
attempts to convert to Protes- 
tantism, 150; power of under 
Home Rule dreaded, 279, 280; 
opinions of Liberals about, 280; 
feared by Protestants in Ireland, 
298, 302, 303; alleged intolerance 
of, 299; control of education by, 
300; causes of fear of in Ireland 
and in Ulster, 303, 304 

Cattle, Irish, excluded from the 
English market, 92 

Cavour, Camillo Beuso, Count di, 
395 

Celestial Fire, worship of, 15 

Celtic Crosses, 24 

Celtic Languages, 317 

Celtic Literary Remains of Ire- 
land, 5 

Celtic People, Goidelic branch of 
in Ireland, 4; Brythonic branch 
of in Britain, 4 

"Celtic Revival," 335 ff. 

Chamberlain, Joseph, opposes 
Home Rule, 250; suggests fed- 
eralism, 262, 453 

Channel Islands, 290 

Character of the Irish People, ap- 
parently changed by the Great 
Famine, 140 

Chariots, 325 

Charles I, Ireland in the time of, 
295 

Charles II, unable to restore prop- 
erty to his Irish supporters, 79 

Chemin des Dames, 436 

Chester Castle, 152 

Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stan- 
hope, Earl of, on the condition 
of Irish peasants, 83 

Chief Secretary for Ireland, power 
and functions of, 229-232 



Christianity, introduced into Ire- 
land, 18; work of St. Patrick in, 
18, 19 ; differs somewhat from 
Roman Christianity, 20 

Church, Irish, tribal organization 
of, 20 

Church of Ireland, disestablish- 
ment of, 181 ff. ; origin of estab- 
lishment of, 182; position of, 183 

Churchill, Lord Randolph, 249 

Churchill, Winston, 262 

Civil War, in Ireland, prospect of, 
264; probably expected by Ger- 
many, 265 

Civil War, American, Irish-Ameri- 
cans in, 444 

Clan-na-Gael, 356 

Clare, Earl of, see Fitzgibbon, 
John 

Clarence, Lionel, Duke of, lord 
lieutenant of Ireland, 46; causes 
Statute of Kilkenny to be passed, 
47 

Classes of People in old Ireland, 
10 

Clearances, 128, 130 

Clergy, Irish, oppose conscription, 
431, 434 

Clergy, Regular, banished from 
Ireland, 85 

Clerkenwell Prison, 153 

Clontarf, battle of, 29; meeting 
proposed to be held at, 132 ; ac- 
count of battle of, 331 

Cloyne, Bishop of, 434 

Coalition, triumph of in the elec- 
tion of 1918, 464 

Cobden, Richard, 142 

Coercion Acts, 197 

Coffin-ships, 140 

Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib, 331 

Colonial Self-government, and Ire- 
land, 285, 286, 290 

"Colonial" Home Rule, 410 

Colonists, English and Scottish, in 
Ireland, high position of, 88; 
kept subordinate by England, 



INDEX 



485 



89; before the sixteenth century 
generally adopt the Gaelic 
tongue, 316 

Colum, Padraic, on Irish national- 
ity, 315 

Commerce, early Irish, 4; later 
Irish, ruin of, 93 

Compensation, for Injuries, in 
tribal Ireland, 13; Edmund 
Spencer on, 13; in England, 14 

Conchobar, 334 

Congested Districts, 211 

Connaught, proposal to extend 
plantation system to, 74, 76; 
poverty in, 211; in the Tain Bo 
Cuailnge, 324, 325 

Connolly, James, 393 

Conor, 326 

Conquest of Ireland, completed, 
69 ff. 

Conscription, announcement of for 
Ireland, 414; attitude of Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples towards, 
420; necessity for in Great Brit- 
ain, 421; bill for passed, 421; in 
Ireland, demanded by British 
people, 428; extension of to Ire- 
land proposed, 430; measure 
passed, 431 ; resistance to in Ire- 
land, 434; Great Britain pre- 
pares to enforce, 435; not en- 
forced in Ireland, 437, 461 ; 
results of the affair of, 437; 
reflections on, 459-461 

Conservatives, take up Irish Ques- 
tion after the Liberals, 202 ff. 

Conspiracy, Sinn Fein, alleged, 
436 

Convention, Irish, proposed by Mr. 
Lloyd George, 405; plan of, 406; 
how received, 406; first sessions 
of, 407; difficulties confronting, 
411, 412; proposals of, 412-414; 
results of, 414, 435 

Convention of the Irish Race in 
America, 468 

Co-operation, in Ireland, 218-222 



Corn, fall in the price of, 130 

Corn Laws, 135; repeal of, 135, 
136; effects of the repeal of in 
England and in Ireland, 142 

Cornwall, 319 

Corruption, Parliamentary, in the 
eighteenth century, 91 

Council of Agriculture, 221 

"Countess Cathleen, The," 338 

Covenant, pledged in Ulster, 260, 
264 

Covenanters, at the beginning of 
the War, 349 

Crime in Ireland, 197 

Crimea, 395 

Cromwell, Oliver, in England and 
in Ireland, 77; at Drogheda, 77; 
subdues eastern part of Ireland, 
77; in Ireland, 295 

Cromwellian Settlement, 78 

Cuchulain, 325, 326 

"Cuchulain of Muirthemne," 338 

Culture, of Old Ireland, arrested 
and ruined, 26; revival of in 
Danish period, 30; decadence of, 
31 

Curzon of Kedleston, George Na- 
thaniel, Earl, Lord, 415 

Customs, 410, 413 

Czechs, 462 



Dail Eirann, 466 

Danes, ravage western Europe, 27; 
invade Ireland, 27; in Dublin, 
27; settle down among the Irish, 
30; adopt the Gaelic tongue, 316 

Dardanelles, 370 

Davies, Sir John, on the Anglo- 
Norman conquest of Ireland, 32; 
on efforts to prevent fusion of 
the races in Ireland, 48; on Eng- 
lish law not being extended to 
the Irish, 52, 53 

Davis, Jefferson, 236 

Davis, Thomas, 132 

Davitt, Michael, 200 



486 



INDEX 



Debt, Irish, after the Union, 118; 
increases, 118, 119 

Decadents, French, 336 

Declaration of Independence, 443 

Defence of the Realm Act, 403 

Deirdre, 326 

"Deirdre," by Yeats, 338 

"Deirdre of the Sorrows," 339 

Democracy, Rise of in Great Brit- 
ain, 179, 180 

Demons, 15 

Denmark, 219 

Department of Agriculture, 219, 
221 

Dermot, King of Leinster, 34; 
flees to Henry II, 34; assisted 
by Norman-Welsh adventurers 
returns to Ireland, 36; death of, 
36 

Desmond, Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl 
of, leader of the Fitzgeralds, 70; 
estates of confiscated, 71 

Devlin, Joseph, on martial law in 
Ireland, 423; on conscription in 
Ireland, 431, 432; suggests that 
the conscription law be not rec- 
ognized, 434 

Devolution, 454 

Dialects, of the Irish Language, 
346 

Dillon, John, on punishment of the 
Irish rebels, 383, 384; on mili- 
tary rule in Ireland, 402; be- 
comes leader of the Nationalists, 
416; on conscription in Ireland, 
431; on the position of the Na- 
tionalist Party, 462; defeated by 
Professor De Valera, 467 

Dinant, 383 

Discrimination, religious, against 
the Irish Catholics, 85; civil, 86, 
87; economic, against Irish in-i 
dustry, 92; against Irish com- 
merce, 93; alleged, against Ro- 
man Catholics concerning ap- 
pointments to offices, 281 

Disestablishment of the Church of 



Ireland, 181 ff.; controversy 
about, 184, 185; bill for, 185; 
act for passed, 186; terms of act 
for, 186, 187; effects of, 187 
Disloyalty, assertions about, 289 
Dissenters, Irish, freed from sacra- 
mental test, 98 
District Councils, 212 
Donation of Constantine, 34 
Donegal, a legend of, 328 
Drama, of the Irish Literary Re- 
vival, 337 ff. 
Drogheda, parliament at, 59; mas- 
sacre at, 77 
Druids, in Ireland, 15 
Dublin, Archbishop of, 465 
Dublin, Danish stronghold at, 27; 
battle of Clontarf near, 29; seat 
of English government in Ire- 
land, 43; decay of, 118; civil 
government of, 275; street-names 
in, 342; insurrection in, 375 ff. ; 
condition of workingmen in, 392; 
syndicalism in, 392 
Dublin, University of, 465 
Dublin Castle, seat of government 
power, 89; unsuccessful attempt 
on, 375 
Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, 132 
Dunraven, Windham Thomas 
Wyndham-Quin, Earl of, on the 
destruction of Ireland, 56 
Dunraven Treaty, 208 
Dunstan, 23 

Durham, John George Lambton, 
Earl of, 176 



Earls, Irish, flight of, 73 

Easter Rebellion, see Rebellion of 
1916 

Education, Irish, control of by re- 
ligious orders, 299, 300 

Edward I, neglects Ireland, 42; 
conquers Wales, 107; attempts 
the conquest of Scotland, 107 

Edward III, Ireland in the time of, 



INDEX 



487 



46; England and Ireland in the 
reign of, 49 ' 

Edward VI, Ireland in the reign 
of, 69 

Edward VII, visit of to Dublin, 
355 

Egbert of Wessex, 29 

Egypt, 177 

Election, General, of 1918, in 
Great Britain, 463, 464; in Ire- 
land, 464, 465 

Elizabeth, Irish church regulated 
by, 65; Ireland in the reign of, 
70-73; interest of in the Gaelic 
language, 316 

Emigrants, Irish, hatred of for 
England, 141 

Emigration, from Ireland, in the 
seventeentb century to Spain, 
87; in the eighteenth century to 
France, 87; to America, 87; 
after the Great Famine, 140; 
horrors attendant on, 141; recent 
causes of, 143 

Emmet, Robert, 119 

Encumbered Estates Act, 149 

Encyclopedia Britannica, 442 

Enfranchising Act of 1793, allows 
Catholics to vote, 101, 114 

England, gets claim to Ireland, 32- 
35; hold of upon Ireland weak- 
ens, 44; power of in Ireland 
wanes in the fifteenth century, 
53, 54; desires complete control 
of Ireland, 68; conditions in in 
earlier part of the nineteenth 
century, 147, 148; contribution 
of to civilization, 163 ff., 171 ff.; 
development of, 163 ff. ; condi- 
tions in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, 165; gov- 
ernment of in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, 165; condi- 
tion of people in, 166, 167; causes 
of the commercial and industrial 
greatness of, 169; failure of in 
Ireland, 170, 174 



English Law, in Ireland, only for 
English colonists, 41; not ex- 
tended to the Irish, 52; Sir John 
Da vies on, 52, 53; extended over 
Ireland, 74; effect of upon the 
natives, 75 

"An Englishman's Home," 363 

Englishmen, attitude of towards 
Americans, 439 

Enniskillen, 261, 295 

Episcopalians, in Ireland, hold the 
power, 88 

Eric, or Fine, 13 

Erin, origin of the name, 3 

Ervine, St. John G., on the agri- 
cultural renaissance in Ireland, 
216; on the new split in Irland, 
223 

Estates Commissioners, 208 

Esther Waters, 322 

Eulogies, 330 

Evictions, 198 

Exchequer, Irish, consolidated with 
the British, 119 

Excise, 413 

Exclusion, of Part of Ulster, pro- 
posed, 262, 308; opposed by Na- 
tionalists, 263, 308; difficulties 
connected with, 307, 308; of 
Unionist Counties, 400 

Expropriation, of Landlords, de- 
manded, 207 

F's, The Three, 199 

Fairies, belief in, 17 

Famine, The Great, causes of, 137, 
138; feeling in England about, 
139; landlords ruined by, 139 

Famines, in Ireland, in the eight- 
eenth century, 84; in the nine- 
teenth century, 135, 136 ff. 

Federalism, suggested by Joseph 
Chamberlain, 262; by Winston 
Churchill, 262; advantages of, 
452, 453 

Federation, see Federalism 

Fenians, beginning of the organi- 



488 



INDEX 



zation of, 151 ; outrages by, 202, 
247, 248 

Fenian Cycle of Prose Romances, 
327, 328 

Fenianism, character of, 152; com- 
ments on, 153, 154; effects of, 
154, 155 

Fergus, 324 

Ferguson, Sir Samuel, poem of 
cited, 12, 13; on the story of 
Deirdre, 326; renders Irish 
pieces into English, 334 

Fes, or Convention, at Tara, 14 

Fianna, 327 

Fianna Boys, organized, 30 1 ; oath 
of loyalty of, 361 ; activities of, 
362 

Fill, Members of the Professional 
Literary Caste, 329 

Finances, Irish, after the Union, 
118; re-arranged by Gladstone, 
144 

Financial Commission of 1896, re- 
port of, 145; comments upon, 
145 

Fion, 327, 328 

Fitzgerald, Gerald, Earl of Kil- 
dare, 60, 61 

Fitzgeralds, 70 

Fitzgibbon, John, Earl of Clare, 
101; on the advantages of the 
Union, 106; on Ireland's desire 
to rebel, 370 

Fitzwilliam, William Wentworth, 
second Earl Fitzwilliam, favors 
admitting Roman Catholics to 
the Irish parliament, 103; re- 
called from Ireland, 103 

Fiume, 467 

Flaith, or Irish Chieftain, 9 

Folk-lore, Irish, use of by modern 
writers, 336, 337 

Ford, Patrick, on the British Em- 
pire, 159 

Forus Feasa ar Eirinn, 332 

Fox, Charles James, on the dis- 
turbed condition of Ireland, 197 



France, emigration of Irishmen to, 
87; conditions in in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, 
168; contribution of to civiliza- 
tion, 171; diminished power of 
priests in, 281 

Franchise, in Ireland, restricted to 
Protestants, 86; Catholics ad- 
mitted to, 99; parliamentary, 
considered as property in Eng- 
land and in Ireland, 111; older 
ideas about, 124; much restricted 
in England and in Ireland, 148, 
149; extended, 149, 178, 179 

Franco-Prussian War, 140 

Freeholders, in England and in 
Ireland, 121, 125 

French, invade Ireland, 67; at- 
tempt invasions of Ireland, 104 

French Revolution, effects of in 
Ireland, 102 

Fudirs, or Unfree Irish, 62 

Fuentes d'Onoro 

Fusion, of Danes with the Irish, 
30; of Anglo-Normans with the 
Irish, 44-46; causes of, 45; con- 
tinuance of tendency towards, 
49; of races, prevented by the 
Statute of Kilkenny and other 
laws, 47, 48; opposed by the 
English government, 52; in the 
time of Henry VII, 59 

Gaelic Language, 316, 317; grad- 
ually abandoned by the Irish, 
317-319; apparently dying out, 
319; nearing extinction, 339; ef- 
forts to preserve and revive, 
339, 340; teaching of in schools, 
341; difficulties in the way of 
wider adoption of, 343-347; 
character of, 343, 344; uniform- 
ity in not yet attained, 346 

Gaelic League, founding of, 340; 
study of Irish stimulated by, 
341 ; makes possible the work of 
Sinn Fein, 343 



INDEX 



489 



Gaelic Literature, old Irish period 
of, 323; middle period of, 3-23- 
330; modern period of, 330-334; 
decline of, 333, 334; revival of 
under the impulse of the Gaelic 
League, 342; character of, 343 

Gaelic Union, 339 

Gaels, tribal organization of, 8; 
religion of before Christianity, 
14 ff. 

"The Gaol Gate," 338 

Garvin, J. L., on the desirableness 
of settling the Irish question, 
201 

Gavelkind, 11; abolished in Ire- 
land, 75 

Gentry, Catholic, debarred from 
political offices in Ireland, 125 

Geographical Position of Ireland, 
449, 450 

George III, prevents Catholic 
emancipation, 114 

George V, visit of to Ireland, 357 

Geraldines, highly regarded by the 
Irish, 45 

Geraldines, of Kildare, nearly ex- 
terminated, 61 

German Writers, on Ireland, 213 

Germans, Ireland not reached by 
invasions of, 5; contributions of 
to civilization, 171; assistance of 
hoped for by some Irishmen, 
283; little assistance from in the 
Irish Rebellion, 378; small part 
of in causing the Rebellion, 394; 
believe civil war in Ireland im- 
minent, 397 

Germany, conditions in in the sev- 
enteenth and eighteenth centu- 
ries, 168; great success of in the 
Great War, 370; prepares for a 
great stroke to decide the war, 
427; begins a terrible offensive, 
429; progress and success of the 
offensive of, 436; dangerous 
propaganda from, 455 

Gladstone, William Ewart, rear- 



ranges Irish taxation, 144; ef- 
fects disestablishment of the 
Church of Ireland, 184; comes to 
favor Home Rule, 248; intro- 
duces bill for, 249; introduces 
second Home Rule bill, 253; 
passes from public life, 254 

Glastonbury, 23 

Glosses, 323 

Goblins, belief in, 17 

"Gods and Fighting Men," 338 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 321 

Gombeen-men, 224 

Gonsalvi, Cardinal, 282 

Government of Ireland, in the 
tribal period, 8, 9; after Henry 
II, 40; in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 89-91; in the period of 
Grattan's Parliament, 100; in re- 
cent times, 227 ff. ; alleged evil 
character of, 268-270 

Graft, under Home Rule, prophe- 
sied, 273 

Grand Juries, Irish local govern- 
ment formerly controlled by, 
240 

Grattan, Henry, career of, 97; 
proclaims the independence of 
the Irish parliament, 98; desires 
friendship with Great Britain, 
99; works for Catholic- emanci- 
pation, 121 

Grattan's Parliament (1782-1800), 
98 ff. 

Great Britain, dangerous position 
of in 1780, 95; character of the 
people of, 177, 178; extension of 
the franchise in, 178-180; growth 
of democracy in, 179, 180; cab- 
inet government in, 229; at the 
beginning of the Great War, 349, 
350; prepares to enforce con- 
scription in Ireland, 435; rela- 
tions of with the United States, 
439 ff. 

Greek Language, study of in Ire- 
and, 22; continued study of, 319 



490 



INDEX 



Greek Writers, Ireland called 
Iernis or Ierne by, 4 

Green, Alice Stopford, Mrs. J. R., 
an exponent of Irish nationalist 
writing, 6; on early Irish society, 
8; on the work of the Irish mis- 
sionaries, 23 

Gregory, Lady, 330; place of in 
the Irish Literary Revival, 337, 
338 

Grey, Charles, Earl, assisted by 
O'Connell, 127 

Grey, Edward, Earl, on the neces- 
sity of settling the Irish ques- 
tion, 291, 438; approves of fed- 
eralism, 453 

Guild Socialism, 220 



Habeas Corpus, 172 

Hamilton, Alexander, 412 

Harp, 25 

Hartingdon, Spencer Compton 
Cavendish, Marquis of, later 
Duke of Devonshire, opposes 
Home Rule, 250 

Hayburning, 278 

Henderson, Arthur, on conscrip- 
tion in Ireland, 431 ; in the elec- 
tion of 1918, 464 

Henry II, empire of, 32; said to 
have sent emissary to Pope about 
Ireland, 33; Ireland granted to, 
33; receives Dermot, 34; gives 
Dermot letters patent, 36; goes 
to Ireland, 37; regulates affairs 
in Ireland, 37; leaves Ireland 
for greater tasks, 38 

Henry III, Ireland during the 
reign of, 42 

Henry IV, Ireland in the time of, 
49 * 

Henry V, Ireland in the time of, 
49 

Henry VI, Ireland in the time of, 
49 

Henry VII, work of in England, 



58; Ireland at the beginning of 
the reign of, 59 

Henry VIII, policy of in Ireland, 
61 ; declared supreme head of the 
church in Ireland, 61; declared 
king of Ireland, 62; general sub- 
mission to, 62; wins the Irish 
chiefs, 62; character of the work 
of in Ireland, 63; seizes lands of 
absentee landlords in Ireland, 
84; Wales incorporated with 
England in the reign of, 107 

Heptarchy, 43 

Hides, Irish, excluded from the 
English market, 92 

Highlands, Scottish, finally recon- 
ciled to the Union with Eng- 
land, 113 

Home Government Association of 
Ireland, 244 

Home Rule, Irish, general com- 
ments upon, 235-237, 239; chief 
argument for, 237; efforts to ob- 
tain, 242 ff.; Mr. Asquith on 
continued demand for, 242; be- 
ginning of movement to obtain, 
243, 244; work of Butt and Par- 
nell for, 244-246; halted by 
Fenian outrages, 248; party, 
split in, 252; further progress of 
movement for, 252; supported 
by Gladstone, 248, 249; first bill 
for, 249; struggle over, 250; de- 
feated, 251; further progress of 
movement for, 252; second bill 
for, 253; defeat of, 254; Liberals 
engage to support, 256; begin- 
ning of the third attempt to 
grant, 257; third bill for, 258, 
259; rejected by the Lords, 259; 
passed again by the Commons 
and again rejected by the Lords, 
262; a third time passed by the 
Commons, 263; the foundation of 
the British Empire, 266; not sat- 
isfactory to the new Irish na- 
tionalism, 266; arguments about, 



INDEX 



491 



266 ff.; character of arguments 
about, 267; method of passing, 
criticised, 271, 272; alleged cost 
of, 272, 273; alleged not to be 
really desired by Irishmen, 275; 
American support of, 275; gen- 
eral demand for, 275, 276; "the 
Secret of Empire," 289, 290; 
necessary for better understand- 
ing between different English- 
speaking peoples, 290, 291; Great 
Britain willing to grant, 310; 
proposals about unsatisfactory 
to Nationalists, 401, 402; 
dropped by the British govern- 
ment, 415; reflections on, 452; 
why not given just before the 
War, 454; why not given during 
the War, 455, 456; Ulster the 
principal obstacle to granting, 
458, 459 
Home Rule Act (1914), suspended 
for the duration of the War, 
350 
Home Rule Bill (1886), first, 

terms of, 249; defeated, 251 
Home Rule Bill (1893), second, 
terms of, 253, 254; defeat of, 
254 
Home Rule Bill (1912), third, in- 
troduction of, 258; passage of, 
259-263, 349; on religious dis- 
crimination, 282; securities in 
against separation, 288, 289; be- 
comes law, 397 
Home Rule Federation of Great 

Britain, 247 
Home Rule League, 244 
Home Rule Question, at the begin- 
ning of the War, 396 
Homer, 325 
Hostages, 10 
Huguenots, in Ulster, 93 
Hungarians, passive resistance of, 

355 
Hunting-songs, Irish, 328 
Hyde, Douglas, 338; founds the 



Gaelic League, 339, 340; as a 
writer in Gaelic, 342 

Iliad, 325 

Imperial Conferences, 290 
Income Tax, 144 

Independents, work of, in Eng- 
land, 172 
India, position of in the British 
Empire, 177; services of Irish 
soldiers in, 289 
Indian Corn, for relief during the 

Great Famine, 136 
Industrial Revolution, effects of in 
England and in Scotland, 166, 
167; draws Ulster closer to 
Great Britain, 296 
Industry, Irish, ruin of, 92, 93; de- 
clines as a result of the Indus- 
trial Revolution, 117 
Innocent III, Pope, 33 
Ireland, origin of the name, 4; 
ancient, conditions in, 8; ancient 
civilization of, 3-17; Christianity 
in, 18-26; invaded by the Danes, 
26^31; partial conquest of by 
the Normans from England, 32 
ff. ; under the English Kings, 32- 
55; complete conquest of by 
England, 56 ff.; wretched condi- 
tion of the people of in the eight- 
eenth century, 81, 82; govern- 
ment of in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 89; conditions in in the 
eighteenth century, 94; under 
Grattan's Parliament, 95-105; 
prosperity of during the period 
of Grattan's Parliament, 99; al- 
leged fictitious character of, 99, 
100; under the Union, 106 ff.; 
population of in 1800, 114; 
causes of decline of prosperity 
in after 1800, 117; conditions in 
at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, 115; population 
of increases in the early part of 
the nineteenth century, 134; 



492 



INDEX 



ravaged by the Great Famine, 
135 ff.; conditions in in the 
early part of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, 148; resources of, 191; 
character of the land of, 192; 
government of, 2-21; objections 
to the government of, 227, 22%, 
231, 232; comments upon the 
government of, 233, 234? ; Gaelic 
language dying out in, 317-319, 
339; efforts to revive use of 
Gaelic in, 339, 340, 341; Eng- 
lish language in, 346, 34T; at 
the outbreak of the War, 349, 
351; in the first years of the 
War, 371-374; situation in in 
1918, 416 

Irish, alleged incapacity of for 
self-government, 276; in Amer- 
ica, influenced by German prop- 
aganda, 394 

Irish Agricultural Organization 
Society, founded, 218; develop- 
ment of, 219; results from, 219- 
222; opposed by the gombeen- 
men, 224: 

Irish- Americans, in the Great War, 
433, 446, 447; influence the 
United States against England, 
442-444; in the development of 
the United States, 443, 444; po- 
litical power of, 444; hatred of 
for England, 445 

Irish- American Newspapers, 445 

Irish Brigade, proposal to form, 
398 

Irish Characters (Letters), 342 

Irish Citizen Army, 376, 390, 393 

Irish County Councils Act (1898), 
240, 276 

Irish Government Bill (Home Rule 
Bill), of 1886, terms of, 249; 
struggle over, 250; defeat of, 
251 

Irish Land Stock, 209 

Irish Literary Revival, 335 ff. 

Irish Literary Theater, 336 



Irish Members, in the parliament 
of the United Kingdom, 8, 112; 
support liberal measures, 127; 
rejoice at British defeats, 283, 
289 

Irish National Council, 355 

Irish National League, 202, 203; 
suppressed in most of Ireland, 
203 

Irish Nationality, attempted awak- 
ening of by Young Ireland, 334, 
353; by the Gaelic League, 339- 
341; by Sinn Fein, 340, 352 ff., 
388, 389, 395 

Irish Question, necessity of proper 
understanding of, 447 ; England's 
attitude towards, 448; reflections 
on, 448 

Irish Republic, proclaimed in 1916, 
376, 377; in 1919, 466 

Irish Republican Brotherhood, 151, 
355, 364, 376 

Irish Republican Party, 466 

Irish Revival, writers of praise 
Ireland, 6 

Irish Soldiers, in the service of 
France, 87; of the British Em- 
pire, 289 

Irish Volunteers, 365, 376, 390 

Irishmen, former English opinion 
of, 7; hostile to England, 196, 
197; part of in the Great War, 
424 

Island Magee Massacre, 383 

Isle of Man, origin of the name of, 
16; fief of the Pope, 33; self- 
government in, 290 

Italy, contribution of to civiliza- 
tion, 171 ; diminished power of 
the priests in, 281 



Jail Journal, 322 

James I, Ireland in the reign of, 

73 
James II, seeks help from the 

Irish, 79; ruin of the cause of in 



INDEX 



493 



Ireland, 80; Ireland in the time 
of, 295 

Jesuits, 299, 300 

John, when Prince, fails in Ire- 
land, 41 ; when King, comes with 
powerful army, 41 

John of Salisbury, 33 

Johnson, Samuel, 321 

Judicial Rents, 201; reduced and 
extended, 204 

Jugo-Slavs, 462 

Junto, 101 

Keating, Geoffrey, 331, 332; prose 
of becomes a standard in Ire- 
land, 346 

Kilkenny, parliament at, 47 

Kilkenny, Statute of, 47; Sir John 
Davies on, 48; purpose and re- 
sults of, 48, 49; largely revived 
in Poyning's Law, 60 

Kilmainham Prison, 247 

Kilmainham Treaty, 247 

Kincora, 329 

"Kincora," by Lady Gregory, 338 

King James Translation of the 
Bible, 345 

Kingston, Richard, 278 

Kipling, Rudyard, on Ulster, 261 

Labor Movement, in Dublin, 392 

Labor Party, opposed to conscrip- 
tion, 421; in the election of 1918, 
463, 464 

Labor Representatives, in the Irish 
Convention, 411 

Laeghaire, 5, 19 

Laissez-faire, 136 

Lancastrian Dynasty, Ireland dur- 
ing the period of, 49, 50 

Land, in Ireland, tribal ownership 
of, 11; granted by Henry VIII 
to the chiefs, 62; taken from the 
natives by the English, 78, 79; 
further confiscation of, 80; after 
1689 mostly in the possession of 
aliens, 80; held mostly by Eng- 



lish proprietors, 82; general re- 
sults of legislation about, 188, 
189; legislation about little 
known in the United States, 190; 
character of, 192 
Land Act of 1870, 198; effects of, 

199 
Land Act of 1881, importance of, 

200; terms of, 201 
Land Laws, Unionist comments 

upon, 274 
Land League, founded, 200; im- 
portance of, 200; suppressed, 202 
Land Legislation, continued by 
Lord Salisbury, 203; general re- 
sults of, 210, 211, 212-215 
"The Land of Heart's Desire," 338 
Land Purchase, 205 ff. 
Land Question, at the beginning of 

the nineteenth century, 115 
Landlords, power of in Ireland, 
83; character of, 83; political in- 
fluence of in Ireland, 124; power 
of largely destroyed, 125, 126; 
oppose reform, 129; ruined by 
the Great Famine, 139; new 
class of follows passing of the 
Encumbered Estates Act, 149; 
power and position of, 194; ex- 
propriation of demanded, 207 
Language, in Ireland, 316 ff.; rela 
tion of to national character, 
320, 321; uniformity of, how 
attained, 344, 345; uniformity of 
not accomplished in Ireland, 346 
I.arkin, James, 392 
Latin Language, continued study 

of, 319 
Laudabililer, so-called Bull, 34 
Law, Andrew Bonar, on the Irish 
situation, 404, 405; on conscrip- 
tion in Ireland, 431, 432; on the 
Irish Question and the Peace 
Conference, 463; in the election 
of 1918, 463 
Laws Affecting Ireland, how made, 
232 



494 



INDEX 



League of Nations, 467 

Leather, Irish, excluded from the 

English market, 92 
Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, 
on Irish opposition to the Act of 
Union, 111; on religious persecu- 
tion in Europe, 164; on the spirit 
of tolerance of Irish Catholics, 
280; as a writer, 322 
Lee, Robert Edward, 236 
Leix and Offaly, plantation in, 69 
Leslie, Shane, on Sinn Fein, 349 
Liberal Party, supports Home 
Rule, 248, 249; split by the 
struggle, 249, 250; alliance of 
with the Nationalists, 253, 256; 
engages to support Home Rule, 
256, 257; more dependent on 
Irish support, 271 
Liberty, development of ideas of, 

91 
Limerick, captured by the Eng- 
lish, 80, 295 
Limerick, Bishop of, 418 
Linens, weaving of in Ulster, 92 
Literature, Anglo-Irish, 321, 322 
Literature, Celtic, or Gaelic, of 
Ireland, 322 ff.; great mass of, 
323; old Irish period of, 323; 
middle Irish period of, 323-330; 
modern period of, 330-334; re- 
vival of under the impulse of 
the Gaelic League, 342; char- 
acter of, 343 
Lloyd George, David, 255; under- 
takes to effect a settlement in 
Ireland, 400; becomes prime 
minister, 403; on the Irish situa- 
tion, 403, 404; proposes scheme 
for settling the Irish Question, 
405; on the Convention, 408; 
makes appeal, 424; proposals of 
for increasing the army, 430; in 
the election of 1918, 463, 464 
Local Government, training of the 
Irish for, 221, 222; in England, 
239; in Ireland, 240; reform of, 



240; results from, 240, 241; con- 
trolled by the Irish, 274 

Logue, Cardinal Michael, Arch- 
bishop of Armagh, on Irish or- 
ganizations, 277 

Londonderry, 261, 295, 297 

Lords Justices of Ireland, 89 

Lord Lieutenant, of Ireland, posi- 
tion of, 89; present position of, 
229, 230 

Lords, House of, reverses O'Con- 
nell's sentence, 132; rejects sec- 
ond Home Rule Bill, 254; op- 
poses reforms, 255; struggle 
over the veto power of, 256; re- 
jects third Home Rule Bill, 259; 
rejects it again, 262 

Lorraine, 368 

Lough Swilly, 456 

Louvain, 383 

Lucy, Sir Henry, 283 

Lullabies, Irish, 328 

Luther, Martin, translation of the 
Bible by, 345 

Luxeuil, 23 

Lyric Poems, Irish, 328 

McCarthy, Justin, 252 

McCarthy, Michael, 300 

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 
Lord, on the subjection of Ire- 
land, 56 

MacDonagh, Thomas, 382 

McGuire, J. K., on Ireland and the 
British Empire, 450 

McHale, Archbishop, 243 

MacLiac, 329, 331 

MacLir, Mannanan, 16 

Macpherson, James, 317, 328 

Magistrates, Irish, alleged charac- 
ter of, 278 

Mahaffy, John P., 406 

Mahan, Alfred Thayer, Admiral, 
on the strategic position of Ire- 
land, 67 

Maine, Sir Henry James Sumner, 
333 



INDEX 



495 



Mainistreach, Flann, 330 

Manchester Martyrs, 153 

Manufactures, Irish, crushed by 
England, 93 

Manuscripts, Old Irish, marvel- 
lously illuminated, 34 

Markets, in old Ireland, 14 

de Markiewicz, Constance Gore- 
Booth, Countess, career of, 360 
ff.; organizes the Fianna Boys, 
361 ; at the performance of "An 
Englishman's Home," 363 

Marne, 436 

Mary, Ireland in the reign of, 70 

Massachusetts, 413, 413 

Matthew, Father, leads the temper- 
ance movement in Ireland, 131 

Maynooth, Roman Catholic college 
at, 133; grant to discontinued, 
186 

Mazzini, Giuseppe, 133 

Meath, 5 

Medb, 335 

Mercantile System, 175 

Mercenaries, in old Ireland, 337 

Metal Work, in old Ireland, 34 

Methuen, Paul Sanford, General, 
defeat of, 383 

Metropole, Hotel, 380 

Middle Ages, Ireland at the close 
of, 54; end of in Europe, 56, 
57 

Middle Europe, 370 

Middle Irish Period of Ireland's 
Literature, 333-330 

Middlemen, ruined by the Great 
Famine, 139 

Military Service Bill, 431 

Milking-songs, Irish, 25 

Mill, John Stuart, 354 

Missionaries, Irish, 22 ff., 30 

Mitchel, John, 133, 333 

Modern Period of Irish Literature, 
330-334 

"Molly Maguires," 277 

Molyneux, William, affirms the leg- 
islative independence of the Irish 



parliament, 90; possible influ- 
ence of, 443 

Monasteries, in old Ireland, 19, 24 

Mongols, 140 

Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, 
Baron de la Brede et de, 172 

Moonlighting, 278 

Moore, George, 333, 336 

Moore, Thomas, 26, 321, 329, 335 

Motu Proprio Decree, 379 

Municipal Corporations, reform of 
in Ireland, 139; in England, 139 

The Mummer's Wife, 332 

Music, in old Ireland, 25; col- 
lected, 26 

Naisi, 336 

Naples, Italian dialect in, 344 

Napoleon Bonaparte, danger from 
influences English attitude to- 
wards Ireland, 105 

The Nation, organ of Young Ire- 
land, 335 

The Nation [London], on Sinn 
Fein, 463 

National Council of Sinn Fein, 
364 

National Union of Conservative 
and Constitutional Associations, 
285 

National Volunteers, 364, 365 

Nationalism, Irish, enhanced by 
the work of Gaelic League, 341 ; 
by the work of individuals like 
Padraic Pearse, 341; shown in 
names, 342 

Nationalist Party, developed by 
Butt and Parnell, 244 ff.; schism 
in, 252; reunited under Red- 
mond, 252 

Nationalist Writers, on the Union 
of Great Britain and Ireland, 
109 

Nationalists, support British Lib- 
erals, 356; assist in passing the 
Parliament Bill of 1911, 357; 
prepare armed forces to resist 



496 



INDEX 



the Ulster Volunteers, 262; not 
willing that Ulster be left out of 
the operation of Home Rule, 
263; alleged democratic charac- 
ter of, 268; at the beginning of 
the Great War, 349; aims of un- 
like those of Sinn Fein, 353; 
representatives of withdraw 
from the House of Commons, 
404; agree to the scheme for an 
Irish Convention, 405; agree to 
the report of the Convention, 
411; at the beginning of the 
War, 416; repudiate connection 
with Sinn Fein, 416; oppose con- 
scription in Ireland, 423, 429; 
under the leadership of Mr. Dil- 
lon, 430, 431 ; oppose the con- 
scription bill, 432; representa- 
tives of resolve to remain in Ire- 
land, 434; position of at the end 
of the War, 462; great defeat of 
in the election of 1918, 464, 465; 
displaced by Sinn Fein, 465 

Nationality, spirit of in the nine- 
teenth century, 352; in Ireland, 
353 

Nationality, Irish, not given a 
chance to evolve out of the 
tribal stage, 27, 53, 54; develop- 
ing, 97; remark of Grattan 
about, 98 

Navigation Acts, English, ruin 
Irish commerce, 93 

Ne Temere Decree, 279, 300 

Nelson's Pillar, 377 

Neolithic People, in Ireland, 4 

New York, 411, 412 

New Testament, translated into 
Irish, 345 

New Zealand, 176 

Normans, conquest of England by, 
31; good results of conquest by, 
38; in Ireland, adopt the Gaelic 
tongue, 316 

Norman-Welsh Adventurers, begin 
the conquest of Ireland, 36; 



cruel behavior of, 37; fail to 
conquer Ireland, 39, 40 
Northmen, 27, 28 



O'Brazil, 17 

O'Brien, William, helps to found 
the United Irish League, 207; on 
conscription in Ireland, 431 

O'Clery, Michael, 331 

O'Connell, Daniel, character of, 
120, 121; early efforts of, 121; 
revives the Catholic Association, 
121; power of, 123; assists Earl 
Grey, 127; begins agitation for 
the repeal of the Union, 128- 
131 ; condemned for conspiracy, 
132; sentence of reversed, 132; 
draws back from extreme meas- 
ures, 132; death of, 142; on in- 
terference by the Pope in Irish 
affairs, 282; does not attempt to 
revive Irish nationalism, 335 

O'Connor, T. P., resolution moved 
by, 403; speech of, 462 

O'Flainn, Eochaid, 329 

O'Mahony, 151 

O'Neill, Shane, 72 

O'Nolan, Rev. Gerald, on the des- 
tiny of Ireland, 18; on the work 
of the Catholics in Ireland, 279 

O'Shea, Captain, 251 

Oak and Steel Boys, 120 

Officials, in Ireland, said to be too 
numerous, 232 

Ogham Writing, origin of, 6; char- 
acter of compositions in, 323 

Oisin, 327 

Old Age Pension Act, 288 

Old Irish Period of Ireland's Lit- 
erature, 323 

Orange Society, founded, 104 

Ormond, Earl of, translates proc- 
lamation into Irish, 45 

Ossianic Cycle of Prose Romances, 
327, 328 

Ossianic Poems, 328 



INDEX 



497 



Palaeolithic People, in Ireland, 4 

Palatine Counties, in Ireland, 43; 
large extent of, 44 

Pale, Part of Ireland under Eng- 
lish Authority, 44; becomes 
smaller, 46, 54; in the time of 
Henry VII, 59 

Papists^ in Ireland, discrimination 
against, 85-87 

Paraguay, 299 

Parliament Act of 1911, 186, 257 

Parliament, English, arranges the 
Cromwellian Settlement, 77, 78; 
discriminates against the Irish 
Catholics, 85, 86 

Parliament, British, maintains tyr- 
anny in Ireland, 91; economic 
discriminations by against Irish 
industry, 92; against Irish com- 
merce, 93; composition of, 100 

Parliament, Irish, origin of, 60; 
asserts independence, 60; made 
subordinate by Poyning's Law, 
60; declares Henry VIII King 
of Ireland, 62; of 1689, 79; work 
of undone, 80; position of in the 
eighteenth century, 90; corrup- 
tion in, 91 ; freed from control 
of the British privy council, 98; 
composition of, 101; period of 
the independence of, 104; advan- 
tages of, 269, 270; proposed com- 
position of, 413 
Parnell, Charles Stewart, support- 
ed by some of the Fenians, 200; 
declaration by, 200; founds the 
Irish National League, 202; 
character of, 245; obstructive 
tactics of in parliament, 246; be- 
comes leader of the Home Rule 
movement, 246 ; head of the Land 
League, 247; in Kilmainham 
Prison, 247; makes agreement 
with Gladstone, 247; all-power- 
ful among the Irish, 248; during 
the struggle over the first Home 
Rule Bill, 250; attacked by the 



London Times, 251; sued by 
Captain O'Shea, 251; downfall 
of, 252; testimonial to, 282; in- 
scription on the monument to, 
284 
Paul IV, Pope, gives English 
sovereigns the title of King of 
Ireland, 35 
Paul-Dubois, Louis, on the effects 

of the Great Famine, 134 
Peace Conference, 462, 463 
Pearse, Padraic, on the destiny of 
the Gael, 7; compared with Em- 
met, 119; work of in enhancing 
Irish nationalism, 341; as a 
writer in Gaelic, 342; president 
of the Irish Republic, 376; re- 
fuses to assist in establishing 
the Boy Scouts in Ireland, 361; 
surrender of, 381 ; death of, 382, 
383; on the Irish rebels, 389 

Peasants, Irish, miserable condi- 
tion of in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 84 

Peel, Sir Robert, procures repeal 
of the Corn Laws, 135; on the 
"coffin-ships," 141 

Penal Code, against Roman Catho- 
lics, 85-87; largely swept away, 
99; completely done away with, 
126 

Pennsylvania, 412 

Pensions, on Irish revenues, 90 

Persecution, Religious, in Ireland, 
86; character of, 86, 87 

Pestilence, after the Great Famine, 
137 

Petty, Sir William, on the condi- 
tion of the Irish, 81; advocates 
union of Ireland with England, 
108; account of Ireland by, 
193 

Phenecians, Ireland known to, 4 

Philadelphia, Irish-American Con- 
vention in, 468 

Philip II, aids the Irish rebels, 66 

Philippine Islands, 177 



498 



INDEX 



Phoenix Clubs, 151 

Phoenix Park Murders, 202, 247; 
Parnell accused of complicity in, 
251 

Pictet, Adolphe, 317 

Pitch-caps, 104 

Pitt, William, problem confronting 
in 1798, 108; views of about 
Ireland, 110; wishes Roman 
Catholics to be allowed to share 
in the government of Ireland, 
110; believes a union with Great 
Britain good for Ireland, 110; 
favors complete emancipation of 
Roman Catholics, 114; yields to 
George III, 114 

"Plan of Campaign," 203 

Plantations, begun in Ireland, 69; 
in America, 69, 74; resistance of 
the Irish to, 70; in Munster a 
failure, 72; formed in Ulster, 
73; much of Ulster, Munster, 
and Leinster laid out in, 73, 74; 
proposed for Connaught, 74; 
success of in Ireland, 74 

Plantation of Ulster, founded, 73, 
294 

"The Playboy of the Western 
World," 339 

Plow-whistles, 25 

Plunkett, Sir Horace, studies agri- 
culture, 216, 217; advocates co- 
operation in Ireland, 217; diffi- 
culties confronting, 218; success 
of, 218; founds the I. A. O. S., 
218; opposed by the politicians, 
222; estimate of the work of, 
225; on Ulster and Ireland, 397; 
chairman of the Irish Conven- 
tion, 406; on the work of the 
Convention, 411, 412 

Plunkett, Joseph, 377 

Poland, Prussian, 58, 368 

Politics, Irish, recent changes in 
the spirit of, 223 

Poor Law of 1838, 129 
Poor Law Unions, 211 



Popes, ambition of, 33; grant Ire- 
land as a feudal dependency, 35; 
interference of in Irish politics, 
282 

Population, of Ireland, increase of, 
134; declines after the Greal 
Famine, 140, 143 

Portugal, 281 

Posen, 451 

Post Office, 375, 377; destruction 
of, 380 

Potato, principal food of the Irish 
peasants, 135; crop fails, 135, 
203 

Poynings, Sir Edward, lord dep- 
uty of Ireland, 59; causes Poyn- 
ing's Law to be passed, 59 

Poyning's Law, 59, 60 

Presbyterians, in Ireland, not al- 
lowed to hold office, 88; of Uls- 
ter, radicalism among, 103; fear 
the Roman Catholics, 298 

Priests, Irish, under English dom- 
ination, 122; great influence of 
at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, 122; assist 
O'Connell, 123, 125; assist in the 
movement for repeal, 131 ; power 
of, 279; oppose conscription, 431, 
434, 461 

Pritchard, James,* 317 

Private Ownership, in tribal Ire- 
land, 11 

Privy Council, English, controls 
the Irish parliament, 90 

Prosperity, during the period of 
Grattan's Parliament, 99, 100; 
causes of the decline of after the 
Union, 117 

Protestants, in Ireland, the upper 
class, 82; organize troops to de- 
fend Ireland, 96 

Provencal, 344 

Provisions, salted, not allowed to 
be sent from Ireland to the Eng- 
lish market, 92 

Ptolemy, Ireland described by, 4 



INDEX 



499 



Puritans, in the English Civil 
Wars, 172 

Quebec, Catholics and Protestants 
in, 301, 302; conscription in, 
428, 434, 461 

Queenstown, 434, 456 

Rackrents, 84 

Rawleigh, Sir Walter, fights 
against Spanish invaders of Ire- 
land, 67; gets estate in Ireland, 
72 

Raymond, a Norman Adventurer, 
37 

Rebellion of 1641, 76; effect of in 
England, 76 

Rebellion of 1798, 104 

Rebellion of 1803, 119 

Rebellion of 1916, 375 ff.; meas- 
ures to suppress, 378; suppres- 
sion of, 378-381; destruction 
caused by, 381 ; feeling aroused 
by, 381 ; stern measures of the 
government following, 382, 383; 
causes of, 390 ff. 

Recruiting, opposed by Sinn Fein, 
356, 372; opposed by the Fianna 
Boys, 362 

Redmond, John, on the changing 
ownership of . land in Ireland, 
188; refuses after a while to sup- 
port Sir Horace Plunkett, 2-22; 
becomes leader of the Home 
Rule party, 252; becomes more 
conservative, 255; on the third 
Home Rule Bill, 259; wishes to 
satisfy Ulster, 262, 263; alleged 
dictatorship of, 271 ; cartoon 
about, 283; speeches of in Amer- 
ica, 284; on separation from 
Great Britain, 288; wishes to 
persuade Unionists of Ulster, 
309; generous loyalty of at the 
outbreak of the Great War, 350; 
on the defence of Ireland, 365; 
on the Irish Rebellion, 378, 382; 



represents an older political or- 
der, 391, 392; on Ireland's de- 
sire for Home Rule, 396; on 
Irish loyalty, 398; wishes to form 
an Irish brigade, 398; declines a 
place in the cabinet, 398; on Ire- 
land and the War, 399; declines 
to continue negotiations about 
Home Rule, 402; appeals to 
England, 402; withdraws from 
the House of Commons, 404; re- 
jects Mr. Lloyd George's scheme 
for settling the Irish difficulty, 
405; on the situation in Ireland, 
407; on conscription in Ireland, 
422, 423; death of, 430 

Redmond, Captain William, 465 

Redmond, Major W. H. K., appeal 
made by, 403; death of, 430 

Referendum, asked for on Home 
Rule, 262 

Reform Law, Electoral, of 1832, 
178; of 1867, 179; of 1884, 179; 
of 1918, 179; of 1884, increases 
the power of Parnell, 248 

Reformation, in Europe, 57; in 
England, 64; in Ireland, 64; ef- 
fects great barrier between peo- 
ples in Ireland, 64, 65; causes 
for failure of in Ireland, 65; 
German, 171 

Regium Donum, 186 

Relief Works, 136 

Religion, in old Ireland, 14 ff. 

Renaissance, in early Christian Ire- 
land, 22; in western Europe, 57 

Rents, in Ireland, rise of, 115, 
199; reduced, 201 

Repeal of the Union, urged by 
O'Connell, 131 

Republic, Irish, planned (1865), 
152; attempted establishment of 
(1916), 376, 377; (1919), 466 

Restoration, of Charles II, effect 
of in Ireland, 79 

Retaliation, Law of, in old Ireland, 
12 



500 



INDEX 



zu Reventlow, Count Ernst, opin- 
ions of about England and the 
British Empire, 161, 162 

Revolution, American, Ireland dur- 
ing, 9(i; causes of, 174-176; later 
effects of, 176 

Revolution of 1688, effects of in 
Ireland, 80 

Revolution of 1848, 104, 146 

Rhode Island, 411, 413 

Ri, or King, in old Ireland, 9 

Richard II, on the classes of peo- 
ple in Ireland, 49 

Richard, Duke of York, in Ire- 
land, 50 

"Riders to the Sea," 339 

Road-fever, 137 

Robert Guiscard, 33 

Roman Catholics, in Ireland, many 
disabilities upon removed, 99; 
admitted to the franchise, 99; 
not allowed to sit in parliament, 
101; barbarously treated, 104; 
the great majority of the Irish 
people in 1800, 114; political 
emancipation promised to but 
not given to, 114; emancipation 
of, 126 

Romances, Irish, Medieval, 324 
ff.; Ulster Cycle of, 324; Fenian 
or Ossianic Cycle of, 327, 328 

Rome Rule, 281, 297 

Roosevelt, Theodore, on the neces- 
sity of settling the Irish Ques- 
tion, 291 

Rossa, O'Donovan, 151 

Royal Commission, on the Irish 
Rebellion, report of, 373 

Royal Irish Constabulary, 356 

Rumania, 403 

Rural Laborers, 211 

Russell, George W. ("A. E."), as- 
sists Sir Horace Plunkett, 218; 
on future social organization, 
220; place of in the Irish Liter- 
ary Revival, 338; on the leaders 
of the Irish Rebellion, 389; mem- 



ber of the Irish Convention, 406; 
pamphlet by, 408, 409; on "colo- 
nial" Home Rule, 410 
Russia, terrorism in, 152; defeat 
of in the Great War, 370; causes 
of withdrawal of from the War, 
426, 427 

Sackville Street, Dublin, 380, 381 

St. Bridget, sacred fire of, 15 

St. Columba, goes to Iona, 22; 
converts the Scots and the Picts, 
23 

St. Columbanus, spreads Christian- 
ity in Burgundy, 23 

St. Finnen, 21 

St. Enda's School, 341 

St. Patrick, early life of, 18; con- 
verts the Irish to Christianity, 
19 

St. Quentin, 429 

St. Stephen's Green, 375, 377 

Salisbury, Robert Arthur Talbot 
Gascoyne Cecil, Marquis of, land 
legislation continued by, 203, 
204; opposes Home Rule, 250; 
on strong government in Ireland, 
254; on the incapacity of the 
Irish for self-government, 276 

Sarajevo, 264 

Schleswig, 368 

Schools, in early Christian Ire- 
land, 21 ; attended by many for- 
eigners, 21; in present-day Ire- 
land, Gaelic taught in, 341 

Scotch-Irishmen, settle in Ulster, 
73; many go to America, 92 

Scotland, origin of the name of, 
23; development of nationality 
in, 107; partial union of with 
England (1603), 107; complete 
union of with (1707), 107, 108 

Scots, from Erin, plunder Britain, 
5 

Scott, Sir Walter, 317, 322 

Secret Societies, 119, 120 

Seebohm, Frederick, 333 



INDEX 



501 



Self-determination, 462 

Self-government, said not really to 
exist in Ireland, 232, 238; solid 
foundation for future, 241 

Senchus Mor, 332, 333 

Separation, of Ireland from Great 
Britain, tendency towards, 105; 
dangers of, 284, 285; reflections 
upon, 449 

Servia, 211, 370 

Shannon, 465 

Shaw, George Bernard, on Castle 
rule, 231 ; place of in Anglo- 
Irish literature, 336 

Shelbourne Hotel, 377 

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 321 

Shires, part of Ireland divided 
into, 41 

Sidney, Sir Henry, in Ireland, 70 

Sicily, Italian dialect in, 344 

Silk Weaving, in Ireland, ruin of, 
92 

Sinn Fein, a description of, 349 ; 
meaning of, 352; an aspect of 
excessive nationalism, 352; aims 
of different from those of the 
Nationalists, 353; purpose of, 
354, 388; beginning of, 355; de- 
velopment and growth of, 255 
ff.; enlistments in the British 
army discouraged by, 356; advo- 
cates the independence of Ire- 
land, 356; does not desire Home 
Rule, 357, 358; unable to carry 
elections, 357; little attention 
paid to by the British authori- 
ties, 358; characteristic activities 
of, 359 ff. ; raises an armed 
force, 364, 365; effects of, 366; 
estimate of, 366-368; attitude to- 
wards Germany, 367, 372, 373; 
benefits from a revulsion of feel- 
ing after the suppression of the 
Irish Rebellion, 385-388; char- 
acter of its leaders, 387, 388; 
attempts to revive Irish nation- 
ality, 340, 352 ff., 388, 389, 395; 



prisoners released welcomed in 
Ireland, 406; continues its work, 
407; revelations about, 415; re- 
newed activity of, 435, 436; al- 
leged conspiracy of, 436; reflec- 
tions upon, 449; in the election 
of 1918, 465; great triumph of, 
465; task before, 466; republic 
proclaimed by, 466, 468; tries to 
get assistance from President 
Wilson, 467; appeals to Ameri- 
can soldiers in Ireland, 467; asks 
that the Irish Republic be ad- 
mitted to the League of Na- 
tions, 467 

Sinn Fein Writers, on the Union 
of Great Britain and Ireland, 
109 

Skeffington, Sheehy, 384; execution 
of, 385; on the Irish Volunteers, 
390 

Skinnider, Margaret, on the activi- 
ties of Sinn Fein, 363; on the 
action of the British government 
after the Irish Rebellion, 383 

Slave-trade, behveen England and 
Ireland, 10 

Smith, Adam, advocates a union 
between Ireland and England, 
108 

Social System, in early Ireland, 9 

Society for the Preservation of 
the Irish Language, 339 

South African Union, 176 

South African War, 207 

Spain, power of the priests in, 281 

Spaniards, invited into Ireland, 73 

Spenser, Edmund, on the Irish cus- 
tom of compensation * for in- 
juries, 13; on starving the Irish, 
71; gets an estate in Ireland, 72 

Spinning-songs, 25 

Spirit Duties, 144 

Squirearchy, 240 

Starvation, as a weapon in con- 
quering Ireland, 70 

Steele, Richard, 321 



502 



INDEX 



Stephens, James, 151 

Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 
Earl of, 75, 76 

Strategic Position of Ireland, with 
respect to England, 66, 67; con- 
siderations about, 284, 285 

Strathclyde, 319 

Stuart Kings, turn to Ireland for 
soldiers, 67 

Stuart Period, of English history, 
58; contest between parliament 
and king during, 75 

Submarines, 455, 456; along the 
Irish coast, 457, 458 

Suffragettes, 460 

Swift, Jonathan, on the Irish par- 
liament, 91; on the Irish har- 
bors, 93; place of in Anglo-Irish 
literature, 321 

Syndicalism, 392 

Synge, John Millington, on the 
story of Deirdre, 326; as a dra- 
matist, 338, 339 



Tacitus, Ireland in the time of, 4; 
on the opinion of Agricola 
about, 5 

Tain Bo Cuailnge, 323; account of, 
324; content and form of, 325 

Tains, 324-326 

Tanist, Elected Ruler in Old Ire- 
land, 9 

Tanistry, abolished, 75 

Tara, Seat of the Over-king, 9; 
convention at, 14; O'Connell's 
great meeting at, 131 

Taxation, in Ireland, increases 
after the Union, 119; comments 
on, 119; increased by Gladstone, 
144; comments on alleged exces- 
siveness of, 144, 145, 273 

Temperance Movement, in Ireland, 
131 

Tenant Protection Societies, 149 

Tenant-Right, 195 

Tenant-Right Convention, 199 



Tenants, political dependence of 
upon landlords, 125; revolt of, 
125, 126; stricken by great pes- 
tilence and famine in Ireland, 
135-137; position of in Ireland 
in the first half of the nineteenth 
century, 194, 195; sad condition 
of, 196; assisted by land legisla- 
tion, 198 ff. 

Text-books, 441 

Thompson, Charles, 443 

"The Three Sorrows of Story-tell, 
ing," 326 

The Times [London], calls atten- 
tion to the growth of Sinn Fein, 
373 

Tipperary, 434 

Tithe War, 128 

Tithes, burdensome character of, 
116; commutation of, 129 

Tone, Wolf, 103 

Tories, obstruct measures of re- 
form, 268; diminishing number 
of, 270 

Tralee, Bishop of, on the dises- 
tablishment of the Irish Church, 
187 

Treitschke, Heinrich von, on Eng- 
land and the British Empire, 
161 

Tribal Law, 12 

Tribal Obligations, in old Ireland, 
9, 10 

Tribal Organization, in ancient 
Ireland, 8, 9 

Tribal Ownership of Land, in old 
Ireland, 11; in other places, 11; 
overthrow of, 11 

Tribal Period, of English history, 
26, 28; of Irish history, 29 

Tribal Spirit, persistence of in Ire- 
land, 220 

Tribal Warfare, in Ireland, 30 

Tudor Period, of English History, 
58 

Tympan, 25 

Tyrconnel, Earl of, lands of made 



INDEX 



503 



part of the plantation of Uls- 
ter, 73 
Tyrone, Earl of, leads rebellion in 
Ulster, 73; lands of made part 
of the plantation of Ulster, 73 



Ukrainia, 152 

Ulster, devastation of, 43; rebel- 
lion of O'Neill in, 72; largely 
confiscated, 72; rebellion of Ty- 
rone in, 73; plantation of laid 
Out (1611), 73, 294; rising of 
the Irish in, 76; woolen industry 
of ruined, 92; many Scotch- 
Irishmen leave, 92; linen indus- 
try in, 92; Huguenot refugees 
in, 92; radicalism among Pres- 
byterians of, 103; Presbtyerians 
of work with Catholics in sup- 
porting Tenant Protection Soci- 
eties, 150; tenant-right in, 195; 
Unionists of make powerful op- 
position to Home Rule, 257, 258; 
desire to maintain the Union, 
259, 260; Covenant pledged in, 
260; Volunteers enrolled in, 261; 
Unionists of resolve to resist 
Home Rule, 261 ; sympathy in 
England for Unionists of, 262; 
temporary exclusion of part of 
proposed, 262; appeals of, 263; 
Unionists of unwilling to com- 
promise, 264; wrong to desert 
Unionists in, 278; expected dis- 
crimination against, 279; Union- 
ists in principal obstacle to the 
granting of Home Rule, 292, 
310; general account of, 293 ff.; 
position of Protestants in, 295, 
296; sometimes opposed to Eng- 
land, 296; draws closer to Great 
Britain, 296, 297; religious fears 
in, 298, 299, 303, 304; industrial 
and economic considerations in, 
304, 305; taxation of, 305; fear 
of Home Rule government in, 



306, 307; population of and re- 
ligious divisions in, 307, 308; ex- 
clusion of Unionist counties of 
from Home Rule, 400; continues 
to be the principal obstacle to a 
settlement of the Irish Question, 
414; soldiers from in the Great 
War, 423, 428; attitude in to- 
wards conscription, 429 

Ulster Question, general comments 
on, 309-311 

Ulster Unionist Council, opposes 
Home Rule, 400 

Ulster Volunteers, 261, 264 

Undertakers, settle English fami- 
lies in Ireland, 72; control par- 
liamentary representation, 89 

Union, of Ireland with Great Brit- 
ain, repeal of sought, 131, 132; 
repeal of desired, 145; Act of, 
regarded as a blessing, 91; de- 
sired by English statesmen, 105; 
desired by some Irishmen, 108; 
petitions for from Ireland, 108; 
Irishmen opposed to, 110, 111; 
made possible by bribery, 111; 
not satisfactory to Irishmen, 
113; disruption of by Home Rule 
predicted, 283 

Union Defence League, 308 

Unionist, origin of the term, 249 

Unionists, of Ulster oppose Home 
Rule, 400, 401 ; constituencies 
controlled by, 276; unwilling to 
compromise in the Convention, 
411; proposed protection for, 
413; support conscription, 432; 
in the election of 1918, 464 

Unionists, Southern, represented 
in the Irish Convention, 406; 
agree to the report of the Con- 
vention, 411; proposed protec- 
tion for, 413; in the election con- 
test of 1918, 464 

United Church of England and 
Ireland, established, 112; dises- 
tablished, 186, 187 



504 



INDEX 



United Irish League, founded, 207; 
fear of, 277, 306 

United Irishmen, Society of 
(1791), 103; seeks aid from 
France, 104 

United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland, established, 112 

United States, of America, emigra- 
tion of Irishmen to, 87, 140; 
Irishmen in support the Fenians, 
151; advantages from the geo- 
graphical position of, 170; 
separation and secession in, 236; 
enters the Great War, 427; 
opinion in concerning Ireland, 
Great Britain, and the War, 433; 
relations of with Great Britain, 
439 ff. 

Usnech, 326 

Utrecht, Treaty of, 186 

de Valera, Professor Eamonn, 
407; proclaimed president of the 
Irish Republic, 467 

Venetia, 344 

Veuillot, Louis, on religious tolera- 
tion, 297, 298 

Viceroy, English, in Ireland, has 
little power during the Anglo- 
Norman period, 43 

Victoria, 289 

Vimy, 429 

Virginia, 412, 413 

Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet, 
172 

Voluntary Service, in Great Brit- 
ain, 420, 421; in Ireland, 428 

Wales, conquered by Edward I, 
107; incorporated with England 
under Henry VIII, 107 

Walker, Rev. George, 297 

"Walsh's Fort," 278 

"The Wanderings of Oisin," 336 

War-dogs, 325 

Washington, George, 236 

"The Well of the Saints," 339 



Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 
Duke of, favors Catholic eman- 
cipation, 125, 126 

Wesley, John, on the kindliness of 
Irish Catholics, 280 

Whigs, attitude of towards Ire- 
land, 128 

Whitby, Synod of, 21 

Whiteboys, 120 

Wilde, Oscar, 322, 336 

William of Normandy, 33 

William, Prince of Orange and 
King of England, supporters of 
get lands in Ireland, 80; gift of 
to Irish Presbyterians, 186 

Wilson, Woodrow, 462; how re- 
garded in Ireland, 467 

Woman's Suffrage, 460 

Women, in England, training of 
for a part in the government, 
241; in ancient Ireland, position 
of, 325 

Wool, Irish, debarred from Eng- 
land, 92 

Woolens, Irish, export of forbid- 
den by the English parliament, 
92 

Writing, introduction of into Ire- 
land, 6 

Wyndham Act, 208 

Yeats, William Butler, on the 
story of Deidre, 326; poetical 
work of, 336; as a dramatist, 338 

York, House of, supported by 
English colonists in Ireland, 59 

Young, Arthur, on the power of 
the landlords in Ireland, 83; on 
the Irish parliament, 91 

Young Ireland, Society of, found- 
ed, 132; influenced by the Revo- 
lution of 1848, 146; revival of 
Irish nationality attempted by, 
335 

Young Italy, 132 

Ypres, 381, 429, 432 

Zeuss, Kaspar, 6, 317 



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